Football season to restart in July |26 May 2020

The football season will restart in July

The 2019-2020 football season is expected to restart in early July according to a revised schedule released by Seychelles Football Federation’s director of competition Clive Delorie.

Speaking to Sports NATION Mr Delorie said that they have had to revise their plans for the season restart in late June after further consultation with the sports authorities (National Sports Council) and now hope to kick off in the first week of July.

“We have had to readjust our fixture after receiving communication in regards to resumption of training as a group which will occur during the month of June according to the health guidelines, so we have agreed that we start in July and complete the season in September which still needs the approval of the SFF executive committee,” explained Mr Delorie to Sports NATION.

The football federation has also engaged with its members to know if all of them will be taking part in this revised schedule as this is crucial for fixture purposes.

“We have engaged with our clubs to see if they will be competing and we have to wait for their response as in this unprecedented time, they have the right to stay away as long as they inform us before the fixtures are released because if they promise to engage but then pull out, then there will be sanctions. But we hope to continue with our season which has been halted if we get at least seven teams to take part,” claimed Mr Delorie who added that if teams do decide not to compete, it won’t affect the financial assistance distributed to all clubs for football development in the post COVID-19 pandemic.

Sports NATION also spoke to SFF president Elvis Chetty and he had this to say about the participation of teams for the closing round of matches of the SeyPearl-sponsored leagues.

“Most of our members have communicated formally to the federation to express their intention to participate so that we can move forward, but I just would like to add that if some are thinking of not competing, they should think carefully as it will mean that they will not be playing football for the rest of the year as we are planning to resume with the 2020-2021 season maybe in December or even early January as we must give them at least six weeks break at the end of the present season. But we are confident to get a good response from our clubs in order to complete this season,” stated Mr Chetty.

SSF boss Chetty also said his federation has completed the financial payments it had promised to give all its members to help them cope with the lack of sponsorship during this economic crisis as they gave Premier League clubs R56,000, championship one clubs R27,000 and champions two sides R17,000.

In other developments, SFF president Chetty reaffirmed their intention to reward this year’s league winners with a substantial cash prize and even the top five clubs will also be rewarded financially.

Other logistics

As for other logistics required for the season restart in July, director of competitions Delorie told Sports NATION that they are still in negotiation with Air Seychelles and therefore are still undecided of the kick-off time for local matches and noted that they also must liaise with Fifa (Fédération internationale de Football Association) if they are cutting short their season for the next two years, to get approval though he is adamant that he would like to see football return with spectators instead of closed door matches.

“I realise that it is difficult to have spectators as it requires a lot of precautions that need to be taken, but I feel it can done at Stad Linite at least where we can put into application the necessary health guidelines though it may prove complicated for the two venues on the inner islands. At the same time, we might see a reduction in the number of spectators attending matches,” remarked Mr Delorie to Sports NATION.

R. J-L.