Football: Restart project |18 May 2020

Football is expected to return on June 24 with or without spectators

‘We want football with spectators,’ says SFF boss

Seychelles Football Federation chief executive Georges Bibi has told Sports NATION that the federation’s preference is to see football return with spectators in the post COVID-19 era.

Speaking to Sports NATION over the weekend after the federation organised its second meeting last week with club officials via video conferencing, Mr Bibi said that they would prefer football to return with spectators after a raging debate is going on in most quarters if sports should reconvene behind closed doors after the coronavirus pandemic.

In fact, most European leagues and even most sports in the world are favouring to restart competition behind closed doors to practice social distancing which is one of the requisites from health authorities to avoid community spreading of the COVID-19.

“We feel that if we have the spectators back in the stadium, this will help the clubs generate some much needed funds from gate receipts at a time when sponsorship is very scarce with the economic meltdown but more importantly, we feel we can easily control the crowd in our stadium and ensure they maintain social distancing,” revealed the SFF chief executive.

Mr Bibi said that the federation is even ready to invest in screening equipment to test the spectators before they enter the stadium as long as the health department approves the federation’s request.

“Make no mistake but the federation will resume football with or without spectators but we are appealing for more understanding by the health department to allow spectators to attend matches and the federation in collaboration with NSC (National Sports Council), we will do our best to ensure social distancing is optimised in the venues and take all necessary measures to control the crowd in the spacious stadium,” claimed the local football official.

The SFF chief executive also spoke of the objective of the meeting which was held on Friday and he explained that it was important to clarify certain issues with the clubs regarding registration for next season.

“We wanted to discuss the Fifa (Fédération internationale de football association) guidelines in regards to the closing and reopening of a season where we have certain obligation as a member of the world governing body to give a period of 12 weeks between seasons. This is the reason why we are trying to finish the season the earliest possible to help when we restart next season,” Mr Bibi told Sports NATION.

As a result of this discussion, Mr Bibi said that the general agreement is for a restart of the delayed season in late June to enable them to complete the league in all three divisions by mid-August and most probably begin the 2020-2021 season in November.

“We have set a date of June 24 to restart the 2019-2020 season and we also aim to complete the SFF Cup in this period up to August. We hope the teams will have had enough time to prepare especially if they started off individual training early last week as they had been advised by the health authorities and NSC guidelines and by June 1, they can intensify their team training which will give them ample sessions for a resumption in late June though it is true that they will not be fully fit. But this aspect will be boosted with the start of competitive matches,” Mr Bibi related to Sports NATION.

However, the SFF chief executive admitted that they are facing a headache to sort out kick-off time for their matches especially with the new travel arrangements for both Cat Cocos and Air Seychelles where there are limited flights and ferry service and this, according to him, will have a direct bearing on matches and their fixtures.

“The movement of teams from the inner islands and vice versa is our biggest challenge for the time being and we still have to negotiate with these two companies but we are confident we can make the fixtures available for the remaining competitions in a week’s time when we have found a solution to these concerns,” Mr Bibi stated.

Nonetheless, Mr Bibi was asked to comment on the threat by some teams not to take part in the remainder of the season due to the impending risk of contracting the COVID-19 virus if football is resumed at this point where this deadly virus is still causing havoc around the world.

“If there are clubs who are contemplating not to participate in the remaining matches, we, as the federation, will continue with our competitions but the team(s) who do not participate will have to face sanctions which are quite clear in our regulations. But we hope that this does not happen as teams must understand that we are in unprecedented times and we are trying our best to work in the best interest of football in difficult circumstances," noted Mr Bibi.

On the other hand, Mr Bibi also called on members to realise the reason why they are meeting with them through video conference where once again some clubs are not linking up on zoom to take part in the discussion.

“We currently have five teams from the inner islands in the Premier League so we also need to involve them in the discussion with the difficulty of travel at the moment, so we feel this is the best way to communicate with all our members. We cannot ignore them but we know that we cannot satisfy everyone, but our aim is to get the views of all our members to make a well-informed decision to benefit our sport,” reflected Mr Bibi.

In conclusion, Mr Bibi reiterated his desire for the return of football to bring entertainment from this much-loved sport which has a big fan base locally at a point when the league has entered a crucial stage before it is concluded with a lot at stake, especially the league crown in all three divisions up for grabs.

“We are keen to see football return to our stadiums with the fans but if this wish is not given approval by the athorities, we have also thought of streaming matches live and we are ready to negotiate with SBC about this possibility where we will bring football to our supporters’ living room,” Mr Bibi retorted as he also made it clear that our clubs will definitely opt out of African club competition for the coming season.

R. J-L.