Last week a request was sent to all Members of the association to comment on whether as an association, our clubs are ready to go back to training, and if we are, what control measures could we put in place.
To the request, only two Members responded, that is, Supersport United FC and Pretoria Cardinals. Both responses are highly appreciated. This speaks to a culture of open engagement, ensuring that there is sufficient guidance from top to bottom, and similarly, from bottom to top. Open engagement is one of the success pillars of highly efficient organisations.
Supersport United’s response was aligned with its understanding of the regulations, that going back to training was more to professional clubs, and not amarteur. After checking the facts about the subject matter, we found that this is indeed true.
Pretoria Cardinals on the other hand looked at the initiative more from a practicality perspective.
They looked at the issues of facilities and the ownership thereof by the City. They also looked at the expense in terms of trying to be COVID-19 compliant as determined that it would be unaffordable. They gave suggestions of their own. Here below we public their response.
On behalf of Pretoria Cardinals FC, I would like to apologise for not forwarding the response to the said communication and, not on the specified period of time as required by The Chairperson. This is due to technicalities encountered during this difficult time which are caused by the abnormal day to day business activities. But, I would like to commend the Chairperson for playing a lead role on this issue of resumption of practice by clubs for preparation.
I believe that this issue need to be given enough time for clubs to be in a position to respond on it. For example, most of the clubs do not have their own training facilities. They use facilities owned by the municipality. This means that they should first find out about the availability of those facilities because at the moment recreational facilities are not open for use by the public. Even if those facilities are open, they are used by more than one club. Unless clubs train on scheduled arrangements which is likely impossible.
Secondly, for clubs to adhere to COVID-19 regulations and also to conditions set by the Association, they need a huge budget to achieve this.
Therefore, it is my opinion that, facilities used by many clubs at a time and the inability for clubs to source out financial assistance, more especially during this difficult period, will make it difficult for the Association to give clubs permission to resume training.
My advice is that, once facilities are open for public, only Super League divisions should be allowed to resume training. This will reduce both the amount of people at the grounds and the financial burden of clubs.
Hope the input will be of great assistance.
Yours sincerely
Bisto Mogashoa (chairperson)
As mentioned, the responses are welcome and highly appreciated. We all learn in the process of open engagement. In this case, I as the Chairperson have learned a great deal. I just hope that the engagements through this and similar platforms can increase and improve so I can learn from all the members of the association.
So there will be no “Going back to Training” until government and SAFA instruct otherwise, and we have concrete safety plans in place.
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