Times Of Swaziland: EFA TO SPEND E0.7M ON TESTING

EFA TO SPEND E0.7M ON TESTING
================================================================================
BY NTOKOZO MAGONGO on 13/01/2021 23:56:00


MBABANE – It’s a huge financial relief for Premier League of Eswatini (PLE)
teams.
The Eswatini Football Association (EFA) has taken the initiative of conducting
compulsory COVID-19 testing of all players and officials in the premier league
and national first division league.
This will also include referees and associated officials ahead of the resumption
of matches after the two- week break as a result of the partial lockdown in the
country. It has now been gathered that the EFA is expected to spend over E800
000 in the process of testing the estimated 1 000 people.
EFA’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Frederick Mngomezulu, in a press briefing,
said this was in line with the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, with the aim
of ensuring that football competitions are in a safe environment.
This will also financially save the teams from huge testing costs as they were
to spend about E20 000 each when testing a squad of about 30 players.
The teams were only tested once for COVID-19 and that was in November before the
kick off of the season on December 12, 2021. Football is currently under
suspension along with other sporting codes in the country, due to the surging
number of COVID-19 positive cases and deaths.
Suspension
Mngomezulu said the suspension of all football competitions, including friendly
matches (if applicable) and other football business activities under the
auspices of the EFA countrywide is applicable, pending a review of the COVID-19
situation in Eswatini, as prescribed by government.
“As was the case in the original testing at the beginning of the 2020/2021
season, each club will be accorded COVID-19 tests for a maximum of 30 people,
inclusive of both players and officials. Detailed information on the scheduling
of the COVID-19 tests and format will be communicated in due course by the
relevant authorities and officers,” Mngomezulu said.
The EFA lamented the unfortunate distress within which football and its
stakeholders find themselves in as a result of the pandemic. Mngomezulu said EFA
has to cooperate to stage safe events or take other required actions that
protect the health of the players, fans, officials and the broader football and
sporting communities.
“Football clubs of the premier and national first division leagues, in an
effort to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and to assure compliance
with the directive of the government of the Kingdom of Eswatini, are expected to
revert back to individual training of players, however, during this period and
in order to ensure the maintenance of the physical condition, such training has
to be monitored by the relevant technical officials. In this respect, coaches
are expected to develop the necessary training programmes and regimes to be
adhered by players during this period,” he said.
Closure
Mngomezulu said there would be a partial closure of the national offices at
Sigwaca House in Mbabane and the Technical Centre at Lobamba, where most of the
departments for which activities have been suspended, will work from home, with
only a few remaining, particularly dealing with ongoing international business
and the sustenance of the statutory operations of the organisation.