Football: Exclusive interview with SFF president Elvis Chetty |05 December 2020

SFF president Elvis Chetty

‘SFF wants to enhance its development in the coming years’

Seychelles Football Federation president Elvis Chetty has said that he wants to see the federation keep expanding during his third tenure as its chairman.

In an exclusive interview with Sports NATION, Seychelles Football Federation (SFF) president Chetty spoke expansively of his plans to enhance football and his commitment to build more infrastructure for the development of this sport in the country.

Aim of the federation

“The focus of my federation for the next four years will be on football development, talent identification as well as providing pathways for all those who wish to pursue a career in football. I also intend to revamp women’s football and my hope is to create a department for women’s football made entirely of a women steering committee,” Mr Chetty revealed to Sports NATION.

Mr Chetty added that his federation bolstered their financial capacity last year though it was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and said they have big plans for the future but need to negotiate a few deals with the sports ministry in their bid to ensure the continued growth of football in our country.

Review of past season

“The 2019-2020 season was a good year for SFF as we built on the progress of past years despite the Covid-19 concern as we took stalk of our strengths and took wise decisions to cut our expenses and at the same time we were able to assist our members when they faced financial difficulties due to the economic meltdown. In fact, the new league format last season was a milestone as the teams adapted well to the change and though there was the break as a result of the coronavirus pandemic which affected our schedule, we were versatile enough and readjusted to successfully complete all our scheduled competitions,” reflected SF boss Chetty.

New season and statutes

Mr Chetty said his federation will assist the clubs and has already started before the beginning of the season so as to get them going through this congested season.

“It is correct that we have promised to assist the clubs in the coming season and in fact we have already disbursed R150,000 for all Premiership teams and the other Championship clubs have received R100,000 each. We have further agreed very competitive end-of-season prize money which will soon be circulated to all the members to encourage and further support football development,” Mr Chetty stated.

He also spoke of the new statutes which were adopted by members in July which he feels represents the evolution and development of the SFF and also to ensure more transparency, accountability and independence. The statutes are independent bodies that have been created to adjudicate in conflicts between parties and its members are not associated to the SFF.

Re-election as president

Mr Chetty also thanked all members for entrusting him to serve for a third term and a new committee in the elections that was held in October and said that he is humble about being re-elected unopposed.

“I am honoured that the members once again showed faith in me and my intention is to bring about radical changes that did not exist in order to best serve our national sport. I would also like to thank the outgoing members and congratulate them for serving the federation so well and as for the newly elected members, I believe they have proved their capacity and versatility to achieve the objectives of the SFF and are ready to serve its members,” Mr Chetty related to Sports NATION.

He remarked that he is very happy that the President of the Republic Wavel Ramkalawan accepted to be the new patron of the SFF and said he is looking forward to discuss his role further in the coming months.

“I want to seize this opportunity to thank the head of state for accepting the role of patron as it is a great honour and I hope to meet with him in the near future to discuss further his role,” Mr Chetty said.

As for the 2020-2021 season, Mr Chetty would like to wish all teams the best of luck as he is confident it is going to be a very exciting campaign which will end in August next year.

R. J-L.