New Covid rules will not ground Jersey Bulls

Jersey Bulls' early-season fixtures at Springfield were affected by travel regulations for visiting players and staff Picture: DAVID FERGUSON

CHANGES to regulations for inbound travellers should not hamper Jersey Bulls’ push for promotion, their chief executive has said – because the club successfully negotiated similar hurdles earlier this season.

From Tuesday 4 January, all visitors and returning Islanders must have received their Covid booster vaccination within the previous two weeks or have produced a negative pre-travel PCR result in the previous 72 hours. Those not classified as ‘triple jabbed’ who arrive without proof of a pre-travel test must isolate in Jersey until receiving a negative result.

However, Ian Horswell does not believe the Island club’s home fixture schedule will be affected.

Following next Monday’s tie against Frimley Green at Springfield – a game not affected by the upcoming restrictions – the Bulls are set to host Beckenham Town, AFC Croydon Athletic and Farnham Town on three consecutive Saturdays.

‘The goal posts have been moved back to where they were in August,’ Horswell explained. ‘It will be exactly what we had to do for our cup ties earlier in the season. We didn’t play a home league game until October but we had three FA Cup games and one FA Vase game here and we went through these rules then.

‘We have written to the three clubs visiting us later in January and explained the rules to all of them. Their club secretaries have said they will make sure everything is in place for them to come. Beckenham will probably be more [pre-travel] PCR tests than boosters, because they’re here on 8 January and you need to have the booster at least two weeks before, but certainly for the Farnham game [22 January] there should be an opportunity for their players to have their booster in time.’

Horswell also revealed that the club’s rescheduled league game away to Molesey has been pushed back by a further week, to Tuesday 18 January, as a result of insufficient flight availability.

More in Thursday’s JEP.

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