There have been reports about vaccinated players getting sick, so to avoid this from affecting their game performance the owner of Steaua Bucharest, Gigi Becali, Romania’s top soccer team will no longer allow Covid-19 vaccinated players to represent his team.
Yes, you read it right, he no longer allows vaccinated players.
In 2003, former Romanian MP and MEP Gigi Becali purchased a majority stake in the 1986 European Cup-winning club.
Becali makes the bizarre, and unfounded, claim that players who are vaccinated lose their strength.
Becali argued that rivals CFR Cluj and Rapid Bucuresti are struggling because the majority of their squads are vaccinated, expressing the notion that vaccinated players are “powerless.”
The president of Steaua Bucharest has banned vaccinated players from playing for his club because he believes that the vaccine lowers performance. 📉 pic.twitter.com/rFRsS7SZyz
— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) February 23, 2022
CFR Cluj-Napoca presently leads Steaua by eight points.
Becali says that people who are dying in hospitals from Covid-19 are vaccinated and not those who refused the jab.
“You’re going to laugh, but I might be right. Those vaccinated lose their strength. That’s something scientific,’ he said according to Romanian journalist Emanuel Rosu.
“Haven’t you seen it at CFR? With Rapid, the players seemed to be fainting. They slept on the ground. All vaccinated people lose their strength!
“I also see mine, the vaccinated ones. It doesn’t affect some, but it does affect those who are older. Haven’t you seen [Ciprian] Deac? There is no more storm.”
Approximately 40% of Romania’s population is fully vaccinated.
Becali said that his striker Claudiu Keseru, who has re-signed with the club after six years with Bulgarian club Ludogorets, can no longer play at a high level because he is vaccinated.
“I gave him the money, I had a contract with him, he was a football player, I was the owner,’ Becali told sport.ro about Keseru’s return.“ I said: You can’t go to this level anymore. You can play in Romania, but not at FCSB (Steaua Bucharest) and CFR!’.
“He said he would show me, but he has nothing to show me. It can’t be at this level anymore. It’s possible because of the vaccine. I say what I think. I don’t want to offend him.
Romania’s second best football team, FCSB, will ban all vaccinated players from playing, owner Gigi Becali says.
He claims he made the decision because getting vaccinated shows ‘they are powerless’.@Emishor pic.twitter.com/Eaa87h6utM
— Sam Street (@samstreetwrites) February 23, 2022
The official Romanian Facebook page for vaccine information said that there are “no studies that support” Becali’s claims. It said:
“Vaccinated footballers do NOT lose their strength after being vaccinated against COVID-19!
“From a medical and scientific point of view, there are no studies that would support a singularity like the one recently promoted on Facebook accounts in Romania.
“Vaccination against COVID-19 does not affect the performance of football players. In contrast, there are enough studies showing that going through SARS CoV-2 infection leaves long-term sequelae (Long COVID), and these can influence athletes’ performance.
“The bottom line is simple: to stay healthy, to enjoy football, to look at those who trust science and medicine. Please inform yourself ONLY from credible, official sources!”
Sources: Welovetrump, Dailymail, Dailystar
