Mbabane: Green Mamba and Sihlangu captain Banele ‘Makonose’ Dlamini has described EFA’s operation ‘football restart’ as a big risk to players and the league.
Eswatini Football Association (EFA) through Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Frederick Mngomezulu announced on Thursday that the currently Coronavirus halted 2019/20 season will see the light of day. Mngomezulu outlined the different phases of the plans to resume the football season starting June 15.
“I personally think it is a big risky project to players and to our league. It will be wise to make sure everyone involved safety is made a priority,” the hard tackling Makonose said.
“For me I will suggest we wait for the start of next season 2020/21 and pay teams the money used from the beginning of the season to the time football was suspended. The reality now is that teams do not have money to kick start preparations again and these include; transport to training and preparation for matches,” he continued.
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The former RSSC United centre back added that since they were doing individual training during lockdown, players obviously did not push to the same limits or levels.
“Individual training is not a good thing to us as players and coaches will be having a difficult problem on that aspect because some were training hard, some to keep shape and some did not bother at all.
Mngomezulu announced that the first phase of ‘operation restart’ will begin on June 15, 2020, terming it the biological phase which will include intensive screening and testing of all involved in football. These include officials, players and referees among others.
This particular phase will last for two weeks to allow those found positive to be treated.
The second phase will take three weeks and it will be dedicated to teams to start preparing for a return to action. The first week will be for individual training, second week for group trainings of about eight and the third week will allow physical contact training. All this time, players and staff will be tested daily of the deadly coronavirus.
The third phase, likely to be at the end of July will be the competition phase that will see teams battle it out for silverware and finish the season.
“This phase will take eight weeks as we will be playing even midweek and can be extended by a further two weeks to allow all remaining competitions to wrap up. Players and match officials will be tested after every match,” Mngomezulu said in his briefing.
has described EFA’s operation ‘football restart’ as a big risk to players and the league.
Eswatini Football Association (EFA) through Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Frederick Mngomezulu announced on Thursday that the currently Coronavirus halted 2019/20 season will see the light of day. Mngomezulu outlined the different phases of the plans to resume the football season starting June 15.
“I personally think it is a big risky project to players and to our league. It will be wise to make sure everyone involved safety is made a priority,” the hard tackling Makonose said.
“For me I will suggest we wait for the start of next season 2020/21 and pay teams the money used from the beginning of the season to the time football was suspended. The reality now is that teams do not have money to kick start preparations again and these include; transport to training and preparation for matches,” he continued.
The former RSSC United centre back added that since they were doing individual training during lockdown, players obviously did not push to the same limits or levels.
“Individual training is not a good thing to us as players and coaches will be having a difficult problem on that aspect because some were training hard, some to keep shape and some did not bother at all.
Mngomezulu announced that the first phase of ‘operation restart’ will begin on June 15, 2020, terming it the biological phase which will include intensive screening and testing of all involved in football. These include officials, players and referees among others.
This particular phase will last for two weeks to allow those found positive to be treated.
The second phase will take three weeks and it will be dedicated to teams to start preparing for a return to action. The first week will be for individual training, second week for group trainings of about eight and the third week will allow physical contact training. All this time, players and staff will be tested daily of the deadly coronavirus.
The third phase, likely to be at the end of July will be the competition phase that will see teams battle it out for silverware and finish the season.
“This phase will take eight weeks as we will be playing even midweek and can be extended by a further two weeks to allow all remaining competitions to wrap up. Players and match officials will be tested after every match,” Mngomezulu said in his briefing.
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