Clear the air on RSPL restart, says TG’s Williams
TIVOLI GARDENS head coach Philip Williams wants the uncertainty regarding the start of the upcoming Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL) season to be resolved soon.
Premier League teams are still awaiting word from the Ministry of Health regarding COVID-19 protocols that were sent by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) regarding the safe resumption of local top-flight football.
An October 18 start has been targeted, but the recent surge in positive COVID-19 cases in the island has cast doubt on the restart of local football. Kingston and St Andrew have recently returned to strict curfew protocols in response to the daily double-digit cases reported. Sections of St Thomas and Clarendon are currently under quarantine.
Williams says they had previously accepted in their preparations the possibility of a spike and are hoping that the protocols are approved in order to move ahead with their plans.
“It is not a surprise to us that there is a spike, and we know because of this, the start [could] be pushed back a little further,” Williams told The Gleaner. “We just need the protocols to guide us and something from the JFF to say,‘This is what we are going to do’so that we can come out of this stage of suspense and know what we should do.”
While continuing to be at the mercy of local officials, Williams said that he has been keeping his team focused through small-group sessions, following the practice of other clubs until they receive the go-ahead for full team training.
“We have decided to move on in training the guys in small groups, as other clubs have been doing,” Williams said. “We cannot move forward with anything [more], as far as our preparation is concerned, until we have a date so that we can plan in terms of the stages of our preparations.
JFF technical committee chairman Rudolph Speid previously said that the organisation was not rushing the restart as it was aiming for proper execution of the restart plan.