Football - SPDF and Red Star join forces |25 January 2017

‘Red Star Defence Forces’ is the new team that will feature in first division football this season. It is the name of the newly promoted first division side, the 2016 division two league champions SPDF. This season they have joined forces with 2016 division three runner-up Red Star to battle in the 2017 Seychelles Football Federation (SFF) division one league.

SPDF gained automatic promotion to first division last year after winning their last game 3-1 against Au Cap. Manager Philip Barbe said that the decision to merge with third division runner up Red Star was due to the fact that most of their players are absent for training most of the time, due to work commitments.

“It will be tough in the first division and with the way SPDF operates, most of our players will be on call. Most of them will be out at sea leaving us with only about five players. So it will be difficult to have proper training to cope with first division football,” said manager Barbe on the phone to Sports NATION.

He also said that the other reason for such a merger was due to the fact that both teams were under the training leadership of the same coach, Harold Hoareau, last season and he knows most of the players and their abilities.

Under a new name, logo and with some forty players, the Red Star Defence Forces are based at Anse Aux Pins. Manager Barbe said that their main aim is to try to stay in the first division this season and from there see what the future holds for them.

“As you have to be physically fit and tactically good to play in first division, we hope to field a good selection from our pool of players, so as to meet with the expectations as most of our players do not have first division experience. We’ll see what we can do,” stated manager Barbe.

He said that both sets of players from both teams have accepted the merger positively.

The secretary general of the SFF, Jemmy Adela, confirmed that the team has been approved to play in the first division by the federation’s committee as this situation is just a merger with a change of name.

Red Star (in red) and SPDF have joined forces to battle in the first division

P.J.

Caption:

Red Star (in red) and SPDF have joined forces to battle in the first division