‘January or call it off’ - Jureidini says Premier League impractical if not started next month
Published:Monday | December 7, 2020 | 12:11 AMLivingston Scott/Gleaner Writer
Harbour View Football Club General Manager Clyde Jureidini says that the Premier League should be called off this season if clubs do not get a clear indication of its official start by next month.
The Jamaica Football Federation is set to meet with the Ministry of Health and Wellness next month to attempt, again, to get approval for the start of the league. However, as the Government’s curfew to curb the spread of COVID-19 during the holiday season runs until January 15, the first two weekends of that month would not be available. Jureidini says that Concacaf’s mandate that all domestic competitions across the region end by June 2021 to make way for the Gold Cup tournament in the summer creates further issues.
“Generally, there are two things,” Jureidini said. “One is that by the end of June, all local leagues must be terminated because the Gold Cup starts in the first week of July. So we couldn’t be having a local league while that is in progress. So there is a restriction on time and you only have a six-month window.
“The Premier League has also been remodelled to have double-headers on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays, which means we won’t have midweek games.
League system
“So to have two rounds of games plus play-offs, we might end up having a condensed league with a league system, or it may be shortened and we go straight to a semi-final and final, or finals. So it will depend on how many weeks we have to play the 22 games, which is 22 weekends, which is almost six months within itself.
“If we are going into January and we don’t know if we are going to get approval as yet, then we might as well just call it off. It may come to a position that this is just not going to work.”
Jureidini says Harbour View would gladly participate in a shortened or changed format, but it has to be practical.
“If that is the best that we have, yes, we at Harbour View would be willing to work with it, but all of us are hoping that it is something feasible,” he said. “It is frustrating for everybody, but no one wants to make an error that will make anybody sick or die, or make it worse. So everyone is bearing the frustration and hoping there is an upside to it.
“But we need to know what the restrictions and the approvals are. We don’t know what the protocols are, and we need to work on that to get it ready. So if they say ‘Go,’ we can start soon after that. If not, we will have to wait again and we will be losing time, which we have very little of.”