Tennis

[Toinho]

1 hour ago, RondónEFC said:

Apparently they're allowing 'have had Covid in the last 6 months' as a medical exemption for some players. ATP have confirmed that 95 of the top 100 players are fully vaccinated and that a handful of players have been granted said exemption due to having a positive Covid test in recent months, although the tournament spokesman wouldn't comment on individual cases with Djokovic obviously being the high-profile one they were quizzed about.

It seems really dodgy to me though and has quite rightly led to some outrage. Australia have had one of the most strict and oppressive approaches towards managing the pandemic out of the countries that are big enough and popular enough as travel destinations to garner any attention. I would be interested to hear the thoughts of @Toinho, @Spike and @Devil-Dick Willie on this as I'd be pretty fucked off if I was Australian with the restrictions on travel that have been in place for the last two years, and what people like Spike have been put through in trying to get home to see family, seeing Djokovic being allowed through a loop-hole to come and compete at the Australian Open despite being pretty openly a "vaccine sceptic" if we want to take the generous route of not calling him a full on anti-vaxxer.

Whatever you think of vaccine rules, surely rules are rules and it would grate on me to see an elite athlete granted this special treatment if I was told I had to jump through hoops every which way to be allowed back into my home country to attend a family funeral, for example.

Apparently our useless PM has actually said something good for once and reckons Novak won’t be let in. 
 

I am not too keen to get into a full on restriction debate but with my life and what’s important to me, I’m happy my state is the strictest in the country. We open up in a month and we will then join the utter shit show thst is the rest of the country and the world. I am not looking forward to it at all. 
 

However, I think with what has happened with people like Spike and those wanting to return home isn’t fair and that has been disappointing from a federal level. That’s for sure. 

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Tommy said:

So Djokovic traveling to the Australian Open despite being unvaccinated with a "medical exemption". 

I think it's very bad for Australia. As soon as people start to find ways around the rules people start to break the rules. Happened in England. Scientists arent entirely sure how much being vaccinated stops the spread. However there is a reasonable chance some of them do from what I have read. 

Edited January 5, 2022 by Guest

[DeadLinesman]

4 hours ago, nudge said:

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others".

I couldn't care less about his vaccination status, but it's a slap in the face for all those who weren't allowed in or out of the country to see their partners, parents and families in the past two years. But it's not exactly surprising, is it? If you have enough money and status, there are always ways to circumvent the rules.

 

That’s first line was exactly what I said the Mrs last night.

[Spike]

6 hours ago, RondónEFC said:

Apparently they're allowing 'have had Covid in the last 6 months' as a medical exemption for some players. ATP have confirmed that 95 of the top 100 players are fully vaccinated and that a handful of players have been granted said exemption due to having a positive Covid test in recent months, although the tournament spokesman wouldn't comment on individual cases with Djokovic obviously being the high-profile one they were quizzed about.

It seems really dodgy to me though and has quite rightly led to some outrage. Australia have had one of the most strict and oppressive approaches towards managing the pandemic out of the countries that are big enough and popular enough as travel destinations to garner any attention. I would be interested to hear the thoughts of @Toinho, @Spike and @Devil-Dick Willie on this as I'd be pretty fucked off if I was Australian with the restrictions on travel that have been in place for the last two years, and what people like Spike have been put through in trying to get home to see family, seeing Djokovic being allowed through a loop-hole to come and compete at the Australian Open despite being pretty openly a "vaccine sceptic" if we want to take the generous route of not calling him a full on anti-vaxxer.

Whatever you think of vaccine rules, surely rules are rules and it would grate on me to see an elite athlete granted this special treatment if I was told I had to jump through hoops every which way to be allowed back into my home country to attend a family funeral, for example.

Novak Djokovic can suck my arsehole. Fuck him and fuck the powers that let him waltz into the country as he pleases. I AM A FUCKING CITIZEN and I couldn't even see my  grandmother before she passed away and I couldn't even attend the funeral, that is something I can never have back. This isn't fair, but since this guy is rich and smacks a green ball across a net he is more valuable than me. I may as well not even exist.

People like him just stand on other's backs and it is sickening. Where is Andrew Bogut when you need him?

[Tommy]

Live footage from the Airport. 

 

[RandoEFC+]

 

 

[nudge]

Somehow, they are making an even bigger mess of things  First grant him the exemption, and then revoke it once there's too much public outrage, and detain him upon arrival for hours? What a shitshow. 

[RandoEFC+]

Smacks of them wildly underestimating the backlash this would cause and being pressured into a u-turn.

[Tommy]

15 minutes ago, nudge said:

First grant him the exemption, and then revoke it once there's too much public outrage

Did Australia grant him the exemption? To me it sounded like he brought the exemption himself, like a note from a Serbian Doctor or something, and hoped that that would get him in. 

[nudge]

1 minute ago, Tommy said:

Did Australia grant him the exemption? To me it sounded like he brought the exemption himself, like a note from a Serbian Doctor or something, and hoped that that would get him in. 

Nope, he was given the exemption after two independent medical expert panels in Australia approved his request (anonymously, too). One of those was the Independent Medical Exemption Review Panel appointed by the Victorian Department of Health. 

[Tommy]

Just now, nudge said:

Nope, he was given the exemption after two independent medical expert panels in Australia approved his request (anonymously, too). One of those was the Independent Medical Exemption Review Panel appointed by the Victorian Department of Health. 

His interaction with them was probably something like this. 

[RandoEFC+]

I have no sympathy for him at all. Just stop being a melt and take the vaccine and none of this happens.

[nudge]

4 minutes ago, RondónEFC said:

I have no sympathy for him at all. Just stop being a melt and take the vaccine and none of this happens.

I don't have much sympathy for him either, but think it shows terrible incompetence when one institution of a country doesn't appear to know what the other institution is doing, when information is contradictory and when rules are applied arbitrarily. 

[Toinho]

I am glad he’s not being let in. Will need to read more into it but odd that he would get an exemption through the state and not federally, as the state doesn’t control international borders. So, as I anticipated, we weren’t ever going to let him in. 
 

edit: just read more. We may have let him in but something to do with wrong visa or wrong details on his visa. Just pop him on another plane back to Serbia. 

Edited January 5, 2022 by Toinho

[Tommy]

One opponent less for Alexander Zverev. 

[RandoEFC+]

 

 

[Devil-Dick Willie]

6 hours ago, nudge said:

Somehow, they are making an even bigger mess of things  First grant him the exemption, and then revoke it once there's too much public outrage, and detain him upon arrival for hours? What a shitshow. 

It's very Australia. Libs have no idea. 

[Spike]

1 hour ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

It's very Australia. Libs have no idea. 

Because it makes Scumto look good by coming in abd ‘fixing’ the shit he took in the Australian open maccas

[Honey Honey]

The best thing about this is how off his rocker his dad is

 

[Toinho]

Looks like Tennis Australia fucked it up according to linked letters to and from the Health Minister. 

[Tommy]

[Honey Honey]

No vax Djokovic's bonkers dad is the gift that keeps on giving. Now compares his son to Jesus crucified on the cross. 

 

[Tommy]

7 minutes ago, Honey Honey said:

No vax Djokovic's bonkers dad is the gift that keeps on giving. Now compares his son to Jesus crucified on the cross. 

 

Now you know where Novak got his "ideals" from. The apple rarely falls far from the tree. 

[Honey Honey]

2 minutes ago, Tommy said:

Now you know where Novak got his "ideals" from. The apple rarely falls far from the tree. 

His wife also a 5G conspiracy promoter 

[LFCMike]