Football League matches start today |04 October 2022
The 2022/2023 football season kicked off on Saturday with St Michel triumphing a record 14th time in the President’s Cup, thanks to a 2-1 win over La Digue-based La Passe.
Played at the start of every season, the curtain-raiser match returned after a two-year hiatus brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic which resulted in restrictions in movements and the cancellation of many sports activities.
Normally contested by the previous season’s league champions and cup winners, the 2022/2023 season President’s Cup pitted 2021/2022 Premier League champions La Passe and runners-up St Michel since the cup competition was not organised last season.
The first league match is scheduled for today between Premier League newcomers LMS and Bel Air at 6 pm at Stad Linite.
For the 2022/2023 season, the National Premier League is divided into three groups ‒ Inner Islands, Mahe group 1 and Mahé group 2. Each group consists of six teams and to even the groups, four teams ‒ LMS, Mont Fleuri, Anse Royale and Bel Air ‒ have been promoted from the Championship to the Premier League division. Last season’s Championship winners Bel Air and runners-up Mont Fleuri have earned automatic promotion.
The groups:
Inner Islands: La Passe, Côte d’Or, Anse Réunion, LightStars, Revengers and Santos.
Mahé group 1: St Michel, Bosco, Defence Forces, Northern Dynamo, Bel Air and LMS.
Mahé group 2: Foresters, St Louis, Real Maldives, Pointe Larue Bazar Brothers, Mont Fleuri and Anse Royale.
The six teams will play each other twice in their respective groups and the top two sides in each pool shall automatically qualify for the National Champions League. The two best third-place finishers among all three groups shall qualify for the National Champions League. The eight teams in the National Champions League will play a double round robin league on a home and away basis, making it a total of 56 matches.
The champions will qualify for the Confederation of African Football (Caf) Champions League.
To determine the two best third-place qualifiers, the following criteria will be used: Greater number of points obtained in group matches, greater number of wins in group matches, and the system of fair play points in accordance with numbers of cards received (yellow card -2, red card -4).
Since the La Digue playing field needs to be renovated and the field certification approved, all Inner Islands group matches will be played on Praslin at Stad Amitié on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. On Mahe, matches shall be played at Stad Linite on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Two matches shall be played on Saturdays ‒ at 4pm and at 7pm.
The SFF has said it will bring the number of teams in the National Champions League to 10 at the start of the 2023/2024 season when the Championship winners and runners-up are promoted to the top flight.
Championship
For the 2022/2023 season, the Championship will comprise 10 teams ‒ Rovers, Beau Vallon, Glacis, Bel Ombre, Persévérance, West Boys, Mont Buxton Veterans, Marine Maintenance, Tigers and Au Cap.
The 10 teams will be involved in a double round-robin league totalling 90 matches, with the first and second-placed finishers promoted to the new Championship League. There shall be no play-offs.
All Championship matches will be played at Stad Popiler.
Premier League play-offs
Three or four teams from the Inner Islands group shall contest the play-off, and the team finishing last shall be demoted to the subsidiary league. They shall play a quadruple round-robin league.
As for the Mahé Premier League play-off, it will be contested by seven or six teams. They shall play a double round-robin league.
SFF Cup
The SFF Cup will be contested by 29 teams.
Ten teams from the Championship and one team from the subsidiary league shall contest the preliminary round. Five matches shall be played after a draw of which a team shall qualify as a bye.
Sixteen (16) teams shall contest the first round (eighth final) and eight teams shall qualify as a bye. Eight teams will then move to the quarterfinals, four into the semifinals and two to the final slated for June 10, 2023.
The SFF Cup champions will represent Seychelles in the Caf Confederation Cup.
Beach soccer
For beach soccer competitions, teams can register a maximum of 25 players.
The SFF has said beach soccer teams are allowed to affiliate with Premier League clubs and only register two players from the affiliated clubs, and they can also affiliate with Championship clubs and register four players from the affiliated teams.
Twelve teams have registered for this year’s beach soccer competitions and they are Real Maldives, MLUH, Persévérance, One Stone, Beach Boyz, Club Stormy Taka, Vision, Equator, Glacis, Sorry, Marine Maintenance and Sunrise. There is a possibility for a new team joining the competition.
The beach soccer season will debut with the Curtain-raiser Cup between Real Maldives and One Stone on Saturday October 15.
As for the league, it will be played on a double round-robin system (132 matches) from October 15, 2022, to March 18, 2023.
The 12 teams registered for the league will also take part in the SFF Beach Soccer Cup and they will be divided into two pools of six teams each.
They shall play each other in the group stage and the winners and runners-up shall qualify for the semifinals. The final is scheduled for May 20, 2023.
Compiled by Gerard Govinden