[UPDATED] Ascension Football League targets March kick off

ASCENSION League director Richard Ferguson is targeting early March for the start of the league following the announcement on Sunday that the safe zone return to play proposal has been approved by the Ministry of Health.

On Sunday, a media release by the Ministry of Sport and Community Development said, “National governing bodies (NGBs) and sport serving bodies will now be able to host sporting events and execute sporting activities for fully vaccinated athletes, coaches, officials, and administrators at specific sporting facilities.”

Since the covid19 pandemic started to affect TT in March 2020 sport has been on the sidelines, with few exceptions being made. National athletes and teams have been permitted to train periodically during the pandemic. A few sports, including tennis and golf, have been allowed.

Fans who are vaccinated will also be allowed to attend sporting events.

“Approval has also been granted for fully vaccinated spectators to attend events at 50 per cent facility capacity for outdoor events, and 25 per cent facility capacity for indoor events subject to guidelines to be issued by the Ministry of Health.

“The new Public Health Regulations will be published today (Sunday) and will take effect from tomorrow Monday, January 24, 2022.”

Ferguson said, “It is a positive reaction by the Ministry of Sport and by extension the Prime Minister and we welcome the move and we look forward to be active in a competitive league in the future.”

Ferguson said he has been in dialogue with clubs and the normalisation committee, who is in charge of local football.

“We have been doing that awhile now, that is nothing new. What we actually need to do now is to work on getting the approval from the Ministry of Sport, the Ministry of Health to play the league.”

Asked if he thinks footballers and stakeholders in the sport who are still hesitant to take the vaccine would get vaccinated now, Ferguson said, “I hope so.”

Ferguson is hoping to start a league in the coming weeks. “We looking at probably the first week in March.”

Football stakeholders have been clamouring for the return of sports, not only football.

On November 11, coaches, players and administrators marched through Port of Spain.

The protest followed Government’s decision to blank the Ascension League’s proposal to resume football.

The protestors wore red t-shirts saying “Let Football Play in a Safe Zone.”

On November 2, the Ascension League issued a statement to the Ministry of Health Terrence Deyalsingh, Minister of Sport and Community Development Shamfa Cudjoe, normalisation committee chairman Robert Hadad and Sport Company of Trinidad and Tobago chairman Douglas Camacho. It was signed by tournament director Kieron Edwards.

The proposal said all the players and coaches are vaccinated.

Three days later, Deyalsingh said permission to start the league cannot be granted at this time.

He said he could not allow the competition to kick off because of community spread of the delta variant of covid19.

Following TT’s 5-0 defeat against Bolivia on Friday in an international men’s football friendly, coach Angus Eve called for the return of local football.

Former TT midfielder Densill Theobald, an assistant coach and director of football at Morvant Caledonia, is excited that football can resume.

“This is great news,” Theobald said.

“We are not only anxious for football to restart, but also just for the youths to look forward to some sort of positivity and using their time wisely in a productive way. That augurs well for the rest of the year. That is a fantastic step in the right direction for everyone involved in the sporting fraternity.”

Theobald said footballers are in “desperate need of competition” with many of them not belonging to a club.

Theobald, who represented TT at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, thanked the Government for taking the decision to resume more sporting activities.

Interim president of the Unified Coaches of TT Jefferson George said, “It is obviously pleasing to know that sport is at least going to be on the same level like industries which have been allowed to open so long (ago).”

In October, multiple sectors of the entertainment industry were allowed to open for vaccinated people. Some of those businesses included gyms, casinos and cinemas.

George questioned the delay in giving sport the green light.

Discussing the mandatory vaccination rule for people who want to get involved in sport, George said, “I am speaking on behalf of the coaches association of course and we had always maintained that any type of vaccination should be a personal choice. It should not be mandated.”