Spanish football club Valladolid have turned down LaLiga’s offer of coronavirus testing kits for their players, insisting: 'Others need them far more.’
Spain has been one of the European countries worst affected by the pandemic, with more than 550 deaths and almost 14,000 cases confirmed so far.
Fellow LaLiga side Valencia announced earlier this week that 35 per cent of their first team staff and players had tested positive for the virus, while Alaves this afternoon confirmed 15 cases within their setup.
However, a spokesperson for Valladolid said: “LaLiga offered them to us, but we have not taken them for medical and social reasons.
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“No player has presented any symptoms and we believe that there are people out there who are much less well off than we are who need them far more than we do. It is those [people] who should have priority.”
The move comes after Spanish Football Federation president Luis Rubiales criticised clubs for testing their players.
“Knowing the lives of many people are at stake it seems out of place to me to use tests on footballers when there are people that need them,” he said.
“The result for the player is the same, if they are positive and don’t have severe symptoms they will be confined at home. Testing players seems unsupportive and absolutely anti-patriotic in these conditions.”
Additional reporting by Reuters.
