Record 20 New Cases Of COVID-19, Chelsea Shuts Down Club Academy

Chelsea academy illustration (Twitter @BuckswoodFC)

JAKARTA - Chelsea reportedly closed their academy building and instructed the players and coaches to isolate themselves in their homes for a week. This was done following the emergence of 20 new positive cases of COVID-19 at the London club.

According to a Goal report reported by Antara, Monday, January 11, Frank Lampard's main squad and Emma Hayes' women's team will certainly not be affected as they train at separate locations in Cobham.

Chelsea will continue to review the situation and those affected have followed government guidelines by self-isolating at home.

This situation is partly due to Chelsea's insistence on checking all the Under-23 players regularly and everyone in the academy.

A new, more contagious, variant of COVID-19 has hit Britain and it is estimated that one in 30 Londoners is infected with the virus.

The closure came after academy players were allowed two weeks off between Christmas and New Year due to a lack of fixtures.

Lampard himself has called up several academy players to his first-team squad in that period, but they were not among those affected after being tested ahead of the FA Cup tie against Morecambe.

The players will have to undergo training at home and the academy building will undergo a deep clean before reopening.

Lampard asked English league clubs to impose sanctions on players who leave home while undergoing independent isolation.

"I am not sure whether the responsibility lies with the clubs or the English Football Federation (FA)," the England coach said after Sunday's match.

"In my opinion, the club should have an internal policy to deal with it with league and FA guidelines."

"If players break the rules they should be punished because we ask everyone in England to follow the rules and players have to follow similar rules at work to align with FA rules and regulations."