Liverpool Allowed Exemption for Training Camp

With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to cause distress across the globe as countries attempt to adapt and normalise their schedule despite the presence of the highly contagious virus, temporary regulations have become a regular occurrence.

One recent example is the British Government’s decision to add Austria to its quarantine list. As of 4AM tomorrow morning, anybody arriving on English shores from the home of Franz Ferdinand will be required to self-quarantine for a period of 14 days.

For the Liverpool squad — currently in place in the Alpine republic for a truncated training camp ahead of the new season — this posed a potential problem, as the Reds are scheduled to face Arsenal in the Community Shield next Saturday.

Luckily, the club has been granted an exemption from this ruling — largely due to the squad’s isolation in camp — and will be able to continue their pre-season as scheduled, including friendlies against Stuttgart and RB Salzburg on Saturday and Tesuday, respectively.

“So, wherever we would be in the moment – if we would be in England or anywhere else or here in Austria – we would do absolutely everything possible to make sure that we create a safe place,” Jürgen Klopp told the club’s official site. “This is our first concern obviously because we could have stayed in England.

“Austria – together with Germany, I would say – in that moment had the best numbers, is pretty experienced in training camps in the summer, so we found this hotel here and they did an incredible job and now we are here in the safe place.

“We are in our own bubble,” he continued. “Do nothing to bring anybody or ourselves in danger and just focus on football. In a couple of days, four or five days, we will back in England and finish the preparation and play first really, really important game against Arsenal. So that’s it.”

As weird as it may be, the new season is just a week away. Hopefully, the preparations will pass without serious incident.