PLCA exploring all options, says Stewart

Premier League Clubs Association (PLCA) vice-chairman, Carvel Stewart, says the organisation is looking at all possible options to ensure they conclude the 2019-20 Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL) season. The RSPL season has been on hold since March 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Stewart revealed that the PLCA had scheduled a meeting for earlier this week but that was aborted after Prime Minister Andrew Holness instructed that citizens over 75 should stay home for 14 days while those over 65 in the public and private sectors should work from home. He also ordered that there should be no gathering of more than 10 persons.

“We were due to have a meeting this week but the prime minister’s announcements killed it. So we are trying to have something on Zoom (videoconference social network platform) or on a some similar platform. But I don’t know as yet. It (PM’s instructions) threw off everybody, so we will have to re-engage everyone and see when we can do it again,” he said.

“We are trying to plan and deal with it (situation) because we want to ensure that the league finishes this year. We don’t want to abandon it. We are taking the view of the people in England who say that their league has to finish, even it is completed just before the start of next season.

“That is the approach and attitude that they have taken and so we want to work towards the finishing of our league, we just have some issues we have to clear up,” he added.

Stewart says that while they have looked at several options and a variety of scenarios already, it is too early to draw any conclusions.

“Personally, I believe we should finish it (league). We have been looking at some issues and we think we can clear up those (complications) way in advance. We are looking at things like players’ contracts, transfer window and such,” he said.

“If the summer wipes out the virus, as everybody thinks it will, we would want to see how we can resume and the available time frame. But we are looking at different scenarios for May, June, July and onwards,” Stewart said.