Football SFF distributes financial assistance to clubs |08 May 2020

St Louis representative Marc Chang Lam receives his team’s cheque from SFF chief executive Georges Bibi

The Seychelles Football Federation through its president Elvis Chetty began distributing funds to clubs to assist them during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as in preparation for the restart of the season.

Speaking to Sports NATION, Seychelles Football Federation (SFF) president Chetty said that this was a promise he made to the clubs and which they have kept to provide financial help to them to cope with the economic crisis especially as clubs are finding it hard to find sponsorship.

“We have started to assist our clubs during this pandemic with much-needed cash to help them meet certain obligations and to be prepared for the restart of the season. We have also at the same time relaxed certain requirements that they would have had to fulfill in normal circumstances similar to how Fifa also did with its members to be able to cope with this health crisis,” Mr Chetty told Sports NATION.

In fact, the federation started to distribute the cash incentive to all six Mahé-based Premier League clubs on Wednesday where they each received R56,000 and they are planning to continue with this financial assistance next week for the other two divisions as around R2 million had been proposed to help support clubs. The lower divisions are expected to receive a lesser cash amount compared to the top flight clubs.

“Honestly we want to give all the clubs an opportunity for each one of our members to be able to complete the season and we are planning to offer more financial assistance at the end of the month and we also intend to compensate financially the top five teams in each league to further assist them during this coronavirus pandemic,” SFF president Chetty explained.

Mr Chetty added that he had planned to meet with the members in a general meeting to discuss pertinent issues but has been advised by the National Sports Council (NSC) to delay this encounter due to the health guidelines in relation to social distancing.

The local football federation was envisaging to restart the season at the start of June as they aim to complete their remaining matches and competitions which will take around six weeks to round up, but at the moment NSC is yet to permit return to its sports venues which remain closed until further notice.

As for the financial assistance, the international football organisation (Fifa) made available around R8 million to each of its member association last month to assist them during this COVID-19 pandemic.

The Premier League teams are St Michel, St Louis, Au Cap, Foresters, Northern Dynamo, Red Star Defence Forces (Mahé), La Passe, Anse Reunion (La Digue), Côte d’Or, LightStars, Revengers (Praslin).

The Championship One teams are Real Maldives, Bosco FC, Pointe Larue Bazar Brothers, Tigers, Anse Royale, Mont Fleuri, Lions LMS and Glacis.

Bel Air, Rovers, Perseverance, Beau Vallon, Marine Maintenance, Bel Ombre and Mont Buxton Veterans form part of the Championship Two.

R. J-L.