Football - 2017 sees six new teams join the football family |27 January 2017

With the new football season now just a few weeks away, as with every year, new teams are formed as they look to make their mark on Seychelles football and hope to be the next giants of the local game. This year six new sides will be competing in the leagues, while two of them has had a change of name.

PTL Bazar Brothers, Judiciary, Etoile, Amitié and St Thomas are among the six newly formed that side that will compete in the lower league this year, which is the third division. These three sides will be joined in the bottom division by the third recent incarnation of Plaisance, who only last year were playing division one football, but were disbanded in the middle of the season due to internal reasons.

Newly promoted inner-island side La Digue Pro will also be competing on the third division this season and they will be joined by West Coast Brothers, Seypec, Mont Fleuri, Anse Royale, Mont Buxton, Mont Buxton Veteran, Beau Vallon and St Roch. Bel Air has as of yet not registered a team, as has the under 16.

In the division two, it remains the largely the same as newly promoted Glacis joins, St Francis, Perseverance, South Olympic, Au Cap, Bwalo Boyz, Tigers, Victoria City and Real Maldives. The Under 17 team is another side that has not registered a team as of yet, leaving doubt as to whether they will field a team this season.

In Division one, newly promoted SPDF has joined forces with last year’s division three runner-up Red Star, to form the Red Star Defence Forces as they make their first ever Division one appearance. The will be joined by Anse Reunion, La Passe, St Louis, Cote d'Or, Lightstars, Northern Dynamo, Revengers, St Michel and Foresters, while the other new name in the division will be the Pillay R Lions, who was previously known as The Lions.

It promises to be another great year for football, where the newly promoted sides will be looking to maintain the positions, while the newly formed sides as always face the task of proving themselves.

The league season is expected to begin early next month, with league champions Cote d’Or taking on Cup winners St Michel in the season opening President’s Cup match.

S.N