With less than 10 weeks before the conclusion of 2020, football’s local governing body, the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), has floated the idea of possibly staging an abridged year-end championship during the traditional Christmas period, once approval is given by the National Covid-19 taskforce.
This was disclosed by a source close to the Elite League clubs, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. According to the source, “This is something that was thrown out a month ago and nothing came of it officially. It’s possibly a plan of staging an event for the Elite Clubs and selective teams. However there have been no discussions with who will participate, one would assume that it would be the Elite Clubs as they would be readily accessible and to some extent prepared to play. It is a tournament that was hinted at and proposed in a verbal fashion but nothing has come up again since.”
The source acknowledged that while the clubs would be willing to participate in the event if green lighted by the medical authorities, a systematic and structured policy must be created, tested and implemented, before the staging of such a venture by the federation.
The source declared, “My thing is that you have around 10 weeks left in the calendar year. Anything playing you would have to officially identify and notify the clubs of your undertaking. The second thing you need to do is to illustrate how you plan to protect the clubs from the Covid-19 virus by disclosing the plans and menu of measures to protect them for the virus. The third thing is that you have to let the clubs know what they would need to do in terms of testing, what form should be conducted, if you are working through the Ministry of Health and what is going to be the role of the clubs, players and support staff. After all, the quarantining of players for any tournament would be financially impractical at the moment.”
The source further opined, “The best plan would be to create a structured and systematic dress rehearsal protocol to test the GFF’s intended systems and witness if it’s practical to stage the event. Training matches every week between organized clubs like the Guyana Defence Force and Guyana Police Force, where you can examine these systems of testing, social distancing and venue control. Do this every week before you intend to actually stage an event, which would provide an idea of what is required to protect players and officials. Socially distance everyone and utilize masks in the technical areas, try to utilize programmes that would give players and officials an understanding of what is required of them if a year-end is actually staged. You have the Providence facility that you can use, after all they are playing and training at the venue and clubs like Fruta Conquerors are training at times there.”
The source further expounded that an event in this current climate could feature a small cadre of participating clubs, which would alleviate the cost associated with staging the competition and minimize the risk of spreading the contagion. The source further contended that a controlled environment will be of utmost importance to this reality, adding that guidance will also need to be provided to the respective participants on their role in supporting the process.
According to the source, “Less clubs playing means less resources would be utilised. Maybe a smaller pool of clubs to participate hosted in the original Christmas period but we are almost in November and there has been no word or statement given to the clubs with regards guidance as to what you would want to do and the format. In terms of the preparation, if you would want clubs to undertake anything on a personal level.”
“Similarly, do we do a pre-tournament testing or pre-game testing, this is the most critical thing. What venues will the federation be using to protect players because you need to utilize a controlled environment to protect and isolate players, club officials and support staff? Protocols for contact tracing must also be established which could identify persons who possibly could have been in contact with infected individuals. There are a lot of areas that need to be covered if they really have plans to stage this tournament following the verbal suggestion”, the source added.
