Two days before the European Football Championship match between Denmark and Finland, the coach of the Danish national team had announced in the media that he was very worried because UEFA had not provided free COVID vaccines in the run-up to the European Championship and not all players of the participating teams in the European Championship had been vaccinated. This gives the impression that the Danish players, or at least a large proportion of them, were vaccinated. The captain of the Danish national team, Christian Eriksen, collapsed on the pitch during the match between Denmark and Finland on 12 June 2021.
In response to my press enquiry about coach Hjulmand’s statements, the Danish Football Association, or rather the head of the press department, has today – before the semi-final match between England and Denmark – refused to provide information about the vaccination of the Danish players, and in particular they refuse to say that Christian Eriksen, who is known to have had a pacemaker inserted after his collapse, was not vaccinated.
In addition, during the days of the European Football Championships, Danish officials vigorously emphasised that Eriksen had not been infected with Corona before the championship, but just as consistently refused to utter sentences such as „Eriksen was not vaccinated before the championship“, which smacks of an over-specific denial.
On 10 June 2021, two days before the European Championship match between Denmark and Finland with Eriksen’s collapse, the coach of the Danish European Championship team, Hjulmand, was quoted in the Süddeutsche Zeitung as follows:
„The 49-year-old Hjulmand had already criticised the European umbrella organisation UEFA several weeks ago for not supplying all European Championship participants with vaccine in time before the start of the tournament. ‚There are some players who have been vaccinated: They have less to worry about.’“
Kasper Hjulmand’s comments are striking against the background of Eriksen’s collapse and several other reports about severe side effects of the „Corona vaccinations“, especially heart diseases in young and healthy people. For example, two national cricketers from the West Indies, who had been vaccinated three days earlier, collapsed on the field a few days ago during the international match against Pakistan. The British airline British Airways even had to report the death of four pilots after their Corona vaccination.
National coach Hjulmand’s statements motivated me to send a press enquiry on 7 July 2021 to the chief press officer of the Danish Football Association and the press officer responsible for the current European Championship, which is called Euro 2020 because of the postponement, although it will take place in 2021:
„Dear Ms Kjaegaard and Mr Hoyer,
I have a press request with one question and I would like to use your answer in my forthcoming corresponding article.
Question:
There are some German articles citing Danish coach Kasper Hjulmand about a COVID vaccination of Danish and other players of the Euro 2020 like this: ‚The 49-year-old Hjulmand had already criticised the European umbrella organisation UEFA several weeks ago for not providing all European Championship participants with vaccine in time before the start of the tournament. ‚There are some players who have been vaccinated: They have less to worry about.‘. This implies that the Dansih team or at least a majority of the team had been vaccinated before the Euro 2020. Did Christian Eriksen get a vaccination before the EURO 2020 resp. before the Match Denmark-Finland?
Example, German article: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/sport/fussball-daenemarks-trainer-hat-verdammt-grosse-corona-sorgen-dpa.urn-newsml-dpa-com-20090101-210609-99-927318
Best regards,
Jens Bernert“
The answer from press officer Jakob Hoyer was quite monosyllabic: they do not comment on the vaccination of players. A bad joke in view of the enormous public interest in this matter. The Danish Football Association’s statement also seems rather bizarre because the request to them was about a comment by a Danish Football Association official on the vaccination of players, which went through several media outlets and was never retracted. So you do comment on the vaccination of players – when it suits you.
To my reply that I interpreted his answer as confirmation that Eriksen had been vaccinated before the European Championship match, Hoyer replied that this was no confirmation. When I again asked him to confirm that Eriksen had not been vaccinated, he did not reply at first and then, a little later, he replied in the way you can read at the end of this article.
So we can state that the Danish Football Association officially refuses to confirm that the seriously injured captain of the national team, Christian Eriksen, who we wish a speedy recovery, was not vaccinated before the European Championship or before the match against the Finnish team. And two days before the match, the Danish coach vigorously criticised the lack of vaccinations among the participants in the European Championship. He could hardly have been referring to his own team.
What is the problem with confirming that Eriksen was not vaccinated when he was in fact not vaccinated?
In his final email to me, the Danish Football Association’s press officer describes vaccinations of its players as a „private problem“ that they do not comment on:
„Hi Jens
We have no comments on players vaccinations as it’s a private issue.
You can quote me on that.
I have no further comments to you..
Bh
Høyer“
