"Lot of blaming going on, but I can assure you our team has done an unbelievable job" - Craig Tiley praises staff amid backlash over Novak Djokovic exemption
Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley said his team "has done an unbelievable job" amid backlash over its handling of Novak Djokovic's medical exemption for the Australian Open.
Novak Djokovic flew to Melbourne on Tuesday with a medical exemption, but his visa was revoked by Australian Border Force officials, who deemed he did not meet the requirements for unvaccinated entry.
Djokovic was subsequently detained at the Park Hotel in Carlton and will stay there until his case is heard in court on Monday.
It has since emerged that players may have been wrongly informed by Tennis Australia that a prior COVID-19 infection was sufficient to gain a medical exemption to enter the country without being fully vaccinated.
Moreover, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan pointed the finger at Tennis Australia for not informing the Victorian government of a federal letter they received which stated that a prior infection would not be accepted as a reason for an exemption.
Amid all the confusion, a leaked video published by News Corp showed Craig Tiley praising his staff for the job they had done.
“There’s a lot of finger-pointing going on and a lot of blaming going on, but I can assure you our team has done an unbelievable job and have done everything they possibly could according to all the instructions that they have been provided," Craig Tiley said in the leaked video.
Tiley added that Tennis Australia would share more details over the next few days, once a lawsuit concerning entry into the country had been dealt with.
“We’ve chosen at this point not to be very public with it and simply because there is a pending lawsuit related to entry into Australia. Once that has run its course, we’ll be able to share more with you,” he said.
#UPDATE "There is a lot of finger pointing going on and a lot of blaming going on but I can assure you our team has done an unbelievable job," Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley says after Novak Djokovic visa crisis, in video leaked to Sunday Herald Sun https://t.co/StFV6vanzB
"We reject completely that the playing group was knowingly misled" - Tennis Australia on visa debacle involving Novak Djokovic
Tennis Australia recently released a statement in which they denied any wrongdoing. The organization responsible for the Australian Open said it had consistently communicated to players that vaccination was the "best course of action" to enter Australia.
It also rejected notions that it had "knowingly misled" players about medical exemption criteria.
"We have always been consistent in our communications to players that vaccination is the best course of action - not just as the right thing to do to protect themselves and others, but also as the best course of action to ensure they could arrive in Australia. We reject completely that the playing group was knowingly misled," the statement to local media read.
"Informing players they could get into the country on a medical exemption was taken from the Smart Traveller website that Greg Hunt (Health Minister) directly referred us to."
Statement ⬇️ https://t.co/WqKSMqBXXS
Novak Djokovic, meanwhile, awaits Monday’s hearing as his lawyers continue to work towards overturning his visa cancelation.