Transfer window for truncated season under review

Daniel Wheeler, Staff Reporter

Jamaica Football Federation competitions chairman Gregory Daley says an evaluation is now under way to come to a decision on how the summer transfer window will be conducted ahead of the upcoming Jamaica Premier League season.

At a press briefing last Thursday, the Professional Football Jamaica Limited announced the return of local top-flight football, which will run from June 26 to September 26. The truncated season will consist of one preliminary round (11 games for all 12 teams), with additional matches for places seventh to 12th to determine final placings, and for those placed third through sixth to decide the two semi-final places. The top two teams qualify automatically for the semi-finals.

The new timeline for the season would see games being played during the usual June to August summer transfer window. Daley said a meeting is scheduled for this week to address the matter, but says that the shortened competition would make it challenging for a window to be conducted as per usual.

“With the league set to start on June 26 and end in September, it would be difficult to open a window the entire way. It’s something that we are looking into deeply right now. There is no final decision on it as yet,” Daley told The Gleaner.

No local competitive football has been played for 14 months because of the pandemic. The league has had several delays in restarting from late last year because of the lack of government approval.

Harbour View's head coach, Ludlow Bernard, said if they do not have an opportunity to acquire players before the June 26 kick-off, it would present challenges to teams, considering the nature of the new format for this season.

“A lot of teams are suffering from a loss of players. When the squads are reduced and (if) there isn’t any possibility of transferring players, then you have a significantly reduced squad. And you are asking the squad to be burdened by all of these games within a 12-week window with a four- to five-week preparation time,” Bernard said. “You are begging for trouble,” he added.

In April 2020, FIFA released their COVID-19 Regulatory Football Issues document that gave guidance regarding how to operate under the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP), which include the transfer window, in the current climate. Among the proposals approved were that member associations were permitted to “amend season dates and/or registration periods either within the Transfer Matching System (an online platform to record transfers) or by otherwise notifying FIFA”. Additionally, Article 5.1, paragraph one of the RSTP Annexe three, said that prior to a registration period ,starting dates can be modified under “exceptional circumstances”.

While he declined to disclose all options ahead of this week's meeting, Daley said that changes could be made to give clubs time to boost their squads.