Football |22 July 2020

Members listening to Mr Chetty and his team during Saturday’s ordinary general meeting

More support as club’s youth development tops priority list

The local football governing body will be concentrating a lot on club’s youth development and work on an action plan for clubs to be able to sustain their youth teams and ensure that they have qualified personal training the youngsters.

The words of commitment came from chairman of the Seychelles Football Federation (SFF) Elvis Chetty who was addressing members during the federation’s ordinary general meeting held on Saturday at the Maison Football, Roche Caïman.

Mr Chetty noted that as the governing body for football, the SFF’s roles and responsibilities are many and varied as it supports its members and the greater football family.

He explained that even though the football family is large with different hopes, dreams and aspirations, the SFF is there to help every member, while promoting its vision to ensure that they are all pushing towards the same direction.

Mr Chetty further explained that the year 2019 was not easy for the clubs as it was the year that the SFF moved to a season that spans two calendar years. The 2019 season, now called 2019-2020 season, started in August 2019 and was expected to finish in May 2020 but will now end in August 2020 because of the break due to the coronavirus pandemic.

He added that in collaboration with the Fédération internationale de Football Association (Fifa), the SFF updated its statutes and that it now has to work with its members to update theirs so that they meet the standards.

The SFF chairman also said they have initiated club licensing for clubs to meet the criteria and become more properly structured.

He added that the SFF has asked all clubs to register on Fifa Connect platform since all transfers will now be done via that medium.

Regarding officiating, Mr Chetty noted that the SFF is working on an action plan to train young referees as it is an important aspect of competition, they therefore have to educate and promote refereeing so that it may attract young boys and girls.

Roland Duval