Football President’s Cup to launch the 23-24 season tomorrow Work on Stad Linite’s new surface completed |22 September 2023

The newly-resurfaced Stad Linite pitch

As of tomorrow, football actions will be back to Stad Linite with the President’s Cup between League winners Foresters and Seychelles Football Federation (SFF) Cup winners La Passe which will officially launch the 23-24 season, putting to test the newly-laid surface.

For most of last season, football matches were switched from Stad Linite to the Astro-turf pitch and Stad Popiler, allowing the SFF to carry out the first phase of renovation work which includes mainly the complete resurfacing of the pitch.

The renovation has been made possible through a lease agreement between the Seychelles government and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (Fifa) in May last year, with a guarantee that football will be given the priority when it comes to using the field.

It was only after the agreement that Fifa agreed to fund the renovation project.

In a press conference held yesterday at Maison Football, chief executive of the Seychelles Football Federation (SFF) Denis Rose explained that the next step is to carry out maintenance work on lighting system, and since the changing rooms, referees’ room, along with other facilities need to meet the international standard, an assessment work has been done by a Fifa expert, the work to upgrade the different facilities will carried out in phases.

This, he said, is necessary for Seychelles to get the green light to start hosting international matches.

As for the 23-24 football season, there will be three divisions – Champion’s League, Championships and League One – whereby promotion and demotion will be applicable.

Winners will gain automatic promotion, while runners-up will engage in play-off matches for a shot at promotion.

It has also been decided that teams will be allowed to field in four foreign players at one time, compared to three previously.

According to Clive Delorie, the director of competitions within SFF, this will bring more entertainment, while also being a relief to the teams who pays Gainful Occupation Permit (Gop) for the players.

As for the national selection, for the upcoming 2026 Fédération internationale de football association (Fifa) World Cup qualification  for the Confédération  Africaine de Football (Caf) qualification tournament, Ralph ‘ Tiapout’ Jean-Louis has been assigned the task of leading the team for the first two matches in November.

Seychelles will face Ivory Coast on Novembers 13, before playing against Kenya in their second match on November 20.

To be exact, coach Jean-Louis who won Seychelles’ only gold medal in the history of the Indian Ocean Island Games (IOIG) in 2011 on home soil, after defeating Mauritius on penalty shoot-out in the final is the lead coach of a caretaker committee set up by the SFF, and not the head coach of the national team.

He will be assisted by Basil Hoareau.

Meanwhile, women’s football has acquired the service of Singaporean Chris Yip-Au who replaces her compatriot Angeline Chua.

According to Mr Rose, since the new and ex coaches are both Singaporeans who are very meticulous people, continuity and progress is guaranteed through the latter.

As part of the effort to meet the Fifa requirements and remain active, the women’s national selection will leave for Malawi today where they will engage with the country’s national side as part of their preparations for the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) Cup.

In Malawi, the Seychelles’ selection will play two matches – September 25 and 28 – before returning on September 29.

Roland Duval