Unvaccinated Bayern Munich Athletes May Get Reduced Salary

A small outbreak of coronavirus in Bayern Munich (ALE) may have exposed a crisis that until then was dealt with internally by the club: the fact that some of its players are not vaccinated.

Last Sunday (21), four team athletes were quarantined after having contact with an individual infected with the coronavirus. They are Serge Gnabry, Jamal Musiala, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Michael Cuisance.

According to the German newspaper Bild, the quartet and also Joshua Kimmich, midfielder of the Bavarian team, refused to take the vaccine against Covid-19.

Also according to the newspaper, the five are also at risk of having their wages cut because they are not immunized.

Germany has been suffering a new wave of coronaviruses in recent weeks and, in an attempt to contain the spread of the pandemic, the state of Bavaria (where the city of Munich is located) has enacted a law that allows companies to cut the wages of employees who refuse to get the vaccine.

And Bayern, according to Bild, is willing to apply this guideline to their players’ salaries. According to the rule, which took effect on November 1, the cut must be proportional to the time that employees need to comply with quarantine.

Of the five Bayern names that would not have been vaccinated, all have had to be quarantined since the new law took effect.

Gnabry, Musiala and Poplar-Moting are in their second isolation this month, having had contact with someone infected. Cuisance and Kimmich were dropped from the cast once. The latter, by the way, has already publicly declared not to have been vaccinated.

The player follows the argument used by other world sports stars, such as American football player Aaron Rodgers, claiming not to know if the vaccine could have long-term side effects — even the immunizers have been proven to be effective.

Also according to Bild, Bayern Munich athletes consider going to court against the club if the salary reduction materializes.

In November, two Bayern defenders (Niklas Süle and Josip Stanišić) tested positive for Covid-19 and were isolated. In both official communications, the club stressed that the infected athletes were “fully vaccinated”. In the news about the quarantine of the quintet, there was no such information.

Publicly, the club promotes campaigns in favor of the vaccine and even organizes vaccination posts in its stadium, the Allianz Arena.

Currently, immunization in the country is progressing slowly. The country passed the mark of 60% of the population vaccinated at the end of August, but, since then, that number has only advanced to 68% — according to data from Our World In Data.

Already the number of infected in Germany has exploded. The moving average of new cases, which reached less than 600 in July this year, is currently at almost 50,000.

Bayern player Leroy Sané, who said he was immunized and has publicly declared himself in favor of vaccination, also said he respected the decision of his teammates not to be immunized.

“I talked about it with Serge [Gnabry]. I want to have them on the team, they are important to us,” he said.

Coach Julian Nagelsmann (who is vaccinated) has already contracted Covid-19 and needed to be isolated, but recently returned to field work.

The coach also commented on the situation of his teammates this Monday (22). “We cannot make the mistake of letting external affairs affect the sporting side. This noise is part of Bayern, it has always been like that. Of course I am not happy with the leak of internal information,” he said.

This Tuesday (23), Bayern will face Dynamo Kiev, in the Champions League group stage.

The team, which has 100% success in the five games so far in the competition and is already classified in the round of 16, will not be able to count on isolated players for the duel.