COVID headache for RSPL clubs
Published:Thursday | July 23, 2020 | 12:16 AMDaniel Wheeler/Gleaner Writer
When local top-flight football returns for the 2020-21 season, clubs will be faced with new financial challenges, given the current environment created by the coronavirus pandemic requiring additional safety and health measures that will come at a cost to the nation’s top clubs.
The 2019-20 Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL) season was cancelled in May because of the local outbreak of the coronavirus disease, but the new campaign is expected to get started in October.
While the Jamaica Football Federation continues to craft protocols and seek the approval of the Ministry of Health for a safe return, clubs are considering how they will finance the required changes.
Harbour View Chairman Carvel Stewart said that the club had previously budgeted to spend, with the assistance of sponsors, $1.5 million on improvements, including the installation of measures geared at minimising the risk of contraction and spread of the virus.
“We are actually making efforts now to [do] improvements. Some of which will accommodate the additional needs for the COVID-19 protocols. But, in truth, we don’t know what the full requirements are for it, and so we will await those,” Stewart told The Gleaner. “So we will just continue to do some of those and await any word that may come as to what is to happen going into a new season.”
Harbour View spends at least $20 million a year, according to Stewart, who also pointed out that there is still no indication if the new entity that will take over the administration of the Premier League will be able to provide any support for clubs.
“We don’t yet know what will happen. We will have to see what that means as to affordability, because we ourselves would not be starting with a lot of money. We do have some funds, but it would be inadequate to cover the full cost of the season,” he said.
Call for subsidised testing
Meanwhile, Molynes United President Herman Cruickshank says that his club is projecting a 40 to 45 per cent increase in their budget for the 2020-21 season because of the protocols that will be required. Having spent between $8 million and $9 million last season, he says that cost-cutting measures may be explored in anticipation of the new requirements.
“The protocol is a must. Because in all the preseason presentations on how we plan to start, there must be added components of the protocol. It’s a cost that we cannot get away from,” Cruickshank said. “So if we have to cut something, we might have to cut something to absorb this cost.”
Cruickshank has called for subsidised COVID-19 testing.
“The tests have to be sponsored by external [sources] because the clubs won’t get any more to start [their seasons], because you have to put in place your own sanitisation [procedures] when you are doing preseason; and then after all of that, you have to find an additional US$70 ($10,000 per test) to verify that you are ready to play,” he said. “It’s a real burden right there on the clubs.”
Humble Lion President Mike Henry described the task of finding the funds for all the necessary protocols as a major challenge.
Normally operating on average of a budget between $26 and 30 million, he says that it will be a challenging undertaking, given the additional funds required to play in a sterile environment and the expected loss of income from gate receipts.