As uncertainty looms on the 2022 Barbados Football Association (BFA) Premier League season given the Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation, a meeting chaired last night by BFA president Randy Harris was held with the clubs via Zoom and several topics were discussed.
During the meeting, the top-flight football teams were informed that the AstroTurf at Wildey, St Michael would be replaced at a cost of BDS$700, 000. There is still uncertainty about when the league will start this year and players, especially those at the national level, must be vaccinated to play.
Information that stemmed from the virtual meeting was widely circulated. The clubs were informed that a new AstroTurf had been sourced and a contract had been awarded for it to be installed. However, it has not left the country of origin as yet and on its arrival in Barbados it will take about 100 days to be completely set up.
No indication was given as to when the domestic season would begin as the country continues to battle with Covid-19. However, the clubs were notified that the BFA would give teams up to six weeks’ notice before a starting date.
“All national players going forward have to be vaccinated, this is because the persons who are not have been costing the BFA a heavy fee as it relates to quarantine on the return to the island or on arrival when travelling.”
The circular continued: “The BFA is also moving to the motion that all players will have to be vaccinated to take part in the new season. However, if a player does not want to be, he can still play in his team under these conditions: The club will have to pay for his Covid test before a match. The player can also pay for it before a match. But it has to be done in order to play. Elections for the BFA are due in 2023.
“The BFA has embarked on a constitutional change in line with what FIFA requires; this has to be approved by FIFA and the BFA clubs. FIFA is planning to come to Barbados to interview the members of the BFA and its clubs to see where they can help and to put in place a plan to help the BFA to better the game in the island.”
Barbados TODAY spoke with BFA president Randy Harris who confirmed that FIFA had signed off on the work and given approval to a company from Holland to install the AstroTurf.
In addition, the BFA president spoke about players being vaccinated and if they chose not to do so what would be expected.
“In order for that to happen (premier league to play), we would need to have our players and officials vaccinated. I think it would rely on that and testing. Testing would prove a bit too expensive for us to continue for a football season, so we are hoping that the majority of our players would think about getting vaccinated.
“However, when it comes to the national team, both for the officials and the players, they would have to be vaccinated because we are in the Concacaf zone and there are a number of countries that are not going to allow our players to enter unless they are vaccinated,” Harris said.
The positive is that most of the national players, both men and women are fully vaccinated or have already had the first shot, Harris shared.
With regards to FIFA coming to Barbados, Harris also explained that this is with regards to the technical aspect of local football for the next five years.
“They are dealing with the technical aspect. They selected Barbados to do a survey on and they would be coming to do identification and working with the technical aspect of Barbados football until 2027, for five years.
“Everything is not signed. They notified us that they are going to do it but obviously they would want when the people come to have a briefing on it so we would facilitate them,” he stressed.
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