Only government can decide when football will resume – Jordaan
SA Football Association (Safa) president Danny Jordaan says the decision to resume professional football solely depends on the government.
Safa president Danny Jordaan. Pic: Gallo Images
“I think the minister made it clear that it is not possible to play at Level 3, there is still the question of social distancing, that and a lot of medical issues,” Jordaan said on Tuesday on SAFM’s Sport On.
READ: Jordaan and Khoza to report to Mthethwa on protocols for football return
“Basically the same environment will prevail for the matches as well however it is dependent upon the government whenever we move out of Level 3 to Level 2 or Level 1 and we don’t know when that will happen but for that reason, the meeting decided that they must engage with the minister to get an understanding of what and how the government is viewing this matter,” he said.
“The final word is not in our hands but in the hands of our government, what we can do is to create the safest environment as possible and I can put that before the ministers of health, sports and transport because also the minister of transport has a key role in all of this, so once we have that sort of engagement we will have a better understanding from a government perspective.
“When you come to amateur football, the ABC Motsepe League for an example has 144 teams and the SASOL League 144 teams. So it is going to be very difficult if not impossible to create a similar biological phase environment for amateur football so we have to wait for level one and see what the position is. So they can only return to training provided there is a strict complaint on health and medical protocols,” he said.
Meanwhile, as reported earlier, Jordaan and Premier Soccer League (PSL) chairperson Irvin Khoza will report back to Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa on the protocols for football’s return.
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