So, a mate of mine plays as a pro footballer in the championship. To increase his day of training he has been regularly cycling to the training ground (approx 36 miles round trip). However, in reaction to the recent accidents with cyclists making the headlines he has been banned by the club from effectively cycling to work. Is this one step too far in an employer trying to protect their workforce ?

so he’s still allowed to train as normal, then drive home and do a 36 mile ride on the same roads?

or is he banned from riding at all?

Quite surprised he needs to increase his training – surely that should be covered by what he does with the club?

Still, I can see their point – if I fall off my bike and twist my ankle it’s a pain but I can still work, your mate would be off work for 6 weeks right in the middle of the championship.

They pay him to perform physically.

If he comes off the bike and injures himself he is out of action and they are wasting money on a player who cant play, this kind of thing is quite normal in sports contracts.

Back in the 90s didnt the singer Seal have a ‘no motorbikes’ clause written into his contract by his record label?

If he wants to do some extra training there is plenty else he could be doing in a more controlled environment….or he could test the waters and see if its cycling in general they dont want him doing or road cycling in particular…if its road cycling then he can still go mountain biking could he not?

I should imagine he’s on reasonable money, even Championship footballers get decent wages these days, i wouldnt rock the boat…his playing career will be short enough anyway without any additonal injuries from being knocked off his bike….if he becomes a trouble maker they’ll sell him, how much does he like his job?!

Apparently banned from cycling into training but can do as he pleases in his own time. Ludicrous !!

Lots of professional sportsmen are restricted to what other sports/activities they are allowed to take part in.

Injuries cost a fortune, and they are simply protecting their investment.

He could always get a Job in a shop or something, if he doesn’t like it 😉

You can sort of see the point
lots of pro sportyfolk are prevented from skiing n’shit – I’d guess they’re more worried about him picking up minor injuries than being squashed (if that happened, I suppose they’d just strike him off the accounts and buy a new player; if he’s injured they have to keep paying him and for his rehab etc). I bet they’d flip if he said he was going going out mtbing instead

Good mate who was a pro, packed up about 5 years ago was never allowed to do anything remotely exciting. No mopeds on holiday no jet skis etc etc.
Obviously he would do mown again but if anything had happened, he would have been in breach of contract.

Apparently banned from cycling into training but can do as he pleases in his own time. Ludicrous

Could be an insurance thing then, not sure about legislation in the UK but here in Spain your journey to/from work is considered part of your working day and is covered by labour law.

Given the job he had I’d day it was pretty reasonable. Its a pretty special case. I was chatting to some of the UK skeleton bob team recently. They spend a big chunk of the year at various winter resorts and aren’t allowed to go skiing.

Roughly one KSI per million miles in the UK, so at 8k miles per year he’d have about 0.8% chance of a KSI per year by my reckoning.

Can’t really see what right the employers have to decide what he does outside of work hours myself 😕

Pretty standard for a pro player, and unless it was specified in his training plan wtf is he doing so much extra work on top of his prescribed training and fitness plan?

He’d better not play for the mighty Tractor Boys! 👿

Same here (Luxembourg). Crash your car on an icy road on the way to work, slip at the train station etc and you’re hurt and it’s somehow down to the company and is reported as such. The flip side of that is the government pays us 90% of the salary back for sick days so it’s swings and roundabouts. The argument our HR gave me was that you’re only traveling at that time and location because you are coming to work.

Roughly one KSI per million miles in the UK, so at 8k miles per year he’d have about 0.8% chance of a KSI per year by my reckoning.

Whatever a KSI is, at those stats it’s more like 0.008% chance.

I think sometimes things like this are put into players contracts , i seem to remember a sunderland player having a clause in his contract saying he could not go into space ! . You can understand it from the clubs point of view .

Didnt Kimi hurt himself crashing a dirt bike and told Ferari he did it in the gym or something, protecting their investment I would call it.

Championship you say? If he plays for Leeds, could you suggest he gets his extra training on a Saturday afternoon by running around the pitch a little harder??? 😉

Rachel

Whatever a KSI is, at those stats it’s more like 0.008% chance.

KSI = killed or seriously injured, and I made it 8,000 miles cycled per year / 1,000,000 miles per KSI which means 0.008 or 0.8% surely?

Ksi = killed or seriously injured

In the uk there is no liability on employers however they travel to work. Even if they are hurt on the road whilst driving for their employer it’s still not reportable to the hse.

I suspect this is about not turning up for training tired from an hour on the bike and not being able to do the training session effectively.

Seems reasonable to me.

KSI isn’t that relevant, though. Even a minor injury would effect the performance of a professional sportsman

Which player/club?

I would understand this if it was in central london as thats where the high profile accidents have been, anywhere else seems a little pedantic.

If it was me I would make sure the coach is aware of the additional effort and clear it with him, thats just common sense where a job is based on his physical perfomance BUT as soon as I type these words I think, there must be quite a few ‘ordinary jobs’ where the work is physical and the outside of work additional effort might impact the day to day work… so… I think it becomes the responsibility of the employee to make sure they can do their job be it a pro footballer or manual laborer. employers cant dictate what you do outside of work but the employee needs to take some responsibility for his actions.

0.8%

so you have a nearly 1 in 100 chance of being killed or seriously injured if you ride 8000 road miles a year?

that doesn’t strike me as good odds?

yes like he will say that rob

Seems reasonable given what he does and what he gets paid.

Lots cannot do certain things iirc due to insurance issues

Not sure how they could enforce this mind unless it is in his contract

My cousin was an Olympian speedskater who, like most speedskaters, cycled through the summer for training purposes. He was contractually bound by his sponsors to avoid mountain biking, though, and he wasn’t allowed to downhill ski in the winter.

Not cycling to work when you play for a professional football club seems consistent.

The training must be a bit soft if he fancies a 17 mile ride afterwards.

Is it all feigning penalties practice?

Or maybe being angry at the ref practice?

A pro rugby player friend asked if he could come and try MTBing out with me a while ago. I had to turn him down. If his club found out that he’d injured himself whilst MTBing, he’d be sacked. He didn’t make that connection for himself. Too many blunt force traumas I reckon!

The odds of death are quite a lot lower than serious injury (about 1/30th IIRC).

But, even doing a cumulative probability wotsit, after 8k miles, its approx 0.8%. Tiny bit less, but close enough.

Whatever a KSI is, at those stats it’s more like 0.008% chance.

care to share how you got 0.008%?

Is this one step too far in an employer trying to protect their workforce ?

Not imo. I agree with the decision.

KSI isn’t that relevant, though. Even a minor injury would effect the performance of a professional sportsman

True. Though my gut reaction is that an hour of cycling is statistically less likely to produce an injury than an hour of football training.

Is this one step too far in an employer trying to protect their workforce ?

They’re not being protective of him as a person, they are just protecting their investment.

I bumped into mark webber (f1) at Woburn once and apparently he was a bit of a regular there (redbull based in mk). I was quite surprised red bull sanctioned him to ride mtb!

Though my gut reaction is that an hour of cycling is statistically less likely to produce an injury than an hour of football training.

True, but in 8,000 miles of cycling the chances of a slip or minor off that results in enough of an injury to slow him down a little is pretty high

Though my gut reaction is that an hour of cycling is statistically less likely to produce an injury than an hour of football training.

Yes but it’s not either/or. He’s going to be doing the football, so the cycling, whatever the risk, is additional.

Cycling is still statistically safer than diving (outside London). So if it’s a danger thing then I am sure he can argue it if he wants. I’d fight it, but then I’m not a pro footballer.
As for the training, they don’t do huge amounts, you will probably be surprised how much they do.

There was interview in the local paper with a player who was one of the kids is the same youth team Beckham, Scholes, Giggs, etc. He said that they all did extra sessions. IIRC Beckham did an extra session with the kids in the age group above and a couple hours working on dead balls as well as their standard training every day. The chap being interviewed did not, he just did the basic.

statistically less likely to produce an injury than an hour of football training.

Those aren’t real injuries, they’re pretending see? That’s a valid part of being a footballer.

The original thing is just absolute nonsense though. he’s far more likely to injure himself driving to work (especially since he’s a footballer) , walking down the stairs or having a shower. Pathetic. They’ve not even thought about it.

Seems strange, if I was injured riding to work then my company would be in the same position as his football team, a man down.
Doesn’t seem to make any sense.

How much did you cost your company though? And would a relatively minor injury stop you doing your job?

Those aren’t real injuries, they’re pretending see?

A friend of a friend lost his leg as a result of a bad tackle.