CFLPA disapproves of CFL’s COVID-19 cancellation policy

The CFL Players’ Association isn’t amused with the league’s COVID-19 cancellation policy.

On Tuesday, the CFL unveiled its policy should COVID-19 issues force game cancellations this year.

In a communique to its membership Thursday, the CFLPA said it was “startled by, and disapproving of,” the policy’s contents and believed it was, “unreasonable and will not stand the scrutiny of an arbitration board.”

Under the policy, if a contest is cancelled because of COVID-19 issues and can’t be rescheduled, the club suffering from the COVID-19 issues will forfeit a 1-0 loss.

Should both squads have issues, they’ll forfeit the game and be assigned losses.

In either scenario, if a team can prove at least 85 per cent of its players under contract have been vaccinated, at least once, the players will receive their salary for the cancelled game.

If that figure falls below 85 per cent, players won’t be paid.

The CFL also stated when teams made their final cuts last Friday, 79 per cent of players were fully or partially vaccinated.

Three clubs had more than 85 per cent of their players vaccinated with the races of the other six ranging between 67 to 81 per cent.

The CFL policy also included other guidelines for cancellation. They were:

• The staging of the game being precluded by a decision from a government health authority
• A team not having 36 players to dress for the game
• A team not having individuals available to coach the offence and defence
• A team not having a certified athletic therapist and sports medicine physician available for a contest

Also, CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie can cancel a game at his discretion following consultation with the CFL’s chief medical officers and the union.