Question asked on Twitter on January 16,
Hello,
Your question follows the showdown between tennis champion Novak Djokovic and the Australian authorities, ahead of the Australian Open. Not vaccinated against Covid-19, the Serb was finally expelled from the country on Sunday January 16, by decision of the Australian Immigration Minister and then of the Federal Court, which rejected his appeal against the cancellation of his visa.
An international controversy that has given rise to careful observation of the athlete’s agenda, his lawyers having made it known that the player benefited from an exemption from vaccination linked to a positive test, which would have been carried out on December 16 2021. However, photos show Novak Djokovic, on December 17, posing unmasked and without physical distancing with children, at the Novak Tennis Center in Belgrade. In a statement posted on Instagram, the player clarified that he had not yet received, at that time, the positive result of his PCR test. The next day, this time well aware that he had contracted the virus, he maintained an interview with the team, still from Belgrade, where he posed without a mask for the photo shoot. “An error in judgmentHe admitted a posteriori.
Another failure of Novak Djokovic?
Your question relates to a possible other breach of health rules on the part of the world number 1, several weeks earlier. You are asking us more specifically about the arrival of Novak Djokovic in France in November 2021 on the occasion of the Paris Bercy Masters, when he was not vaccinated and potentially came from a country where the circulation of the virus was active. at the time, with circulation of worrying variants, namely Serbia. The country was indeed classified by France among the red countries between October 21, 2021 and January 6, 2022, the date on which it returned to the orange zone.
Contacted by CheckNews, the French Tennis Federation (FFT) specifies the conditions surrounding the holding of the Parisian tournament, from November 1 to 7, 2021. The protocol was indeed linked to the country of origin and framed by the practice of the tests, which also confirms to us the Ministry of Sports. Thus, it was intended that “any unvaccinated person from a green zone is subjected to a PCR saliva test every 48 hours and any unvaccinated person from an orange or red zone is subjected to a PCR saliva test every 24 hours“. Furthermore, “players had to answer the medical questionnaire on the ATP application on a daily basis when arriving at the Arena».
In reality, the way Novak Djokovic was able to access the Masters and enter France on this occasion does not matter. Because, as our colleagues from nice morning, the player was already present on French territory before this competition. From October 28, he visited the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy (a training center where Serena Williams’ coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, offers tennis training), located in Biot, in the Alpes-Maritimes, as shown in a published photo on the academy’s Instagram account, where Novak Djokovic, France football team coach Didier Deschamps and tennis player Daniil Medvedev pose with a smile – and without a mask.
The same day, Daniil Medvedev also posts a photo with Djokovic, in the same outfit, on the same course. An express passage from the international star – who, according to our information, only stayed there for a single day. On October 31, the multiple Grand Slam winner is in Paris, from where he publishes on his networks a video of his training for the Masters, which begins the next day.
From there, one can legitimately wonder under what conditions Novak Djokovic entered France, at the end of October, in order to join the academy of Mouratoglou. The question arises all the more since on October 25, three days earlier, he was still present in Belgrade, Serbia. The proof: this article from Telegraph, Serbian newspaper, dated October 25, which reports on his visit to children in a gymnasium in the capital. As noted again Nice morning, Novak Djokovic himself mentions, in this article, his future participation in the Paris Masters. “In the meantime, he’s been training in his hometown and spending time with the kidswrites the journalist.
International rules
The rules concerning border crossings last fall were numerous in the context of the health crisis. Thus, to enter France from a country classified in red, it was requested (according to the rules in force from July 31, 2021), for unvaccinated persons, the justification of a compelling reason, the performance of a test Negative PCR 48 hours before travel and an antigen test on arrival, as well as a mandatory ten-day quarantine “controlled by security forces».
The Interministerial Delegation for Major Sports Events specifies, in a communication specifically related to health issues, that “participation in a competition or sporting event on national territory does not, in itself, constitute an overriding compelling reason allowing the free movement of athletes, including professionals or high-level athletes“. However, exceptions can be put in place. For this, the event or a club involved in a European competition must request the obtaining of the compelling reason from the sports agency and the ministry. “If the event is recognized as falling within the compelling reason, the organizer may request to benefit from an adjustment of seven or ten days depending on the country of origin for the athletes and their supervision.“, indicates the interministerial delegation.
Conditions ? In order to have the right to adjust the isolation period, it is necessary to enter into a logic of health bubble structured by public and declined in course, with daily negative PCR test. Could this course have been set up by the Mouratoglou Academy, on the occasion of the arrival of Novak Djokovic? Given the status of the training center, which did not organize international competition at this time, and given the photos without a mask published on social networks, it is doubtful. CheckNews was able to verify that the center did not make this type of derogatory request.
Djokovic arrived in France via Monaco
In fact, according to our information, the player arrived at Mouratoglou academy not directly from Serbia, but via Monaco, where he resides. This therefore allowed him to enter France from an area classified as green by France, which, even if not vaccinated, avoided him having to justify a compelling reason and the obligation of isolation. . Still according to our information, he was asked (as well as his team), to come and train at the training center, the presentation of a negative PCR test. He then carried out his training behind closed doors, on the covered court, in the presence of the world number 2 and Didier Deschamps.
But this, in reality, only shifts the problem. Because to enter Monaco from Serbia, also classified in the red zone by the principality until the end of December at least, he would have had to observe a ten-day isolation there too, with a PCR test at the end of this period. A rule that even applies to residents, the princely government’s website explaining that “anyone aged 16 or over, regardless of their nationality, who enters the Principality and comes from a foreign country classified in the red zone is required to present» the equivalent of a health pass. If this person is not vaccinated or cannot present a certificate of recovery, then he must justify “that his displacement is based on a compelling reason, present the negative result of a PCR or antigen test of less than 24 hours” and especially “self-isolate for ten days and perform a PCR test at the end of their self-isolation period“. A rule of isolation that Novak Djokovic could not observe while being present in Serbia on October 25.
There remains one last hypothesis: that of the diplomatic passport. A sesame that the player was awarded in 2011, after his victory in the Davis Cup. Supposed to facilitate his international travels, did he also allow him an exemption from isolation? The Prince’s Government of Monaco has not specified the rules applying in this regard. But for lawyer Kenneth Weissberg, specializing in international law, there is little chance that this document will offer such a privilege. “While the diplomatic passport protects the person concerned from any arrest or detention, it does not confer on him the right to evade a measure of public order and public health. He must therefore submit to the said isolation measure at his home or at the embassy of his country., he says to CheckNews.
