COVID-19 Update: Suspension of matches – Statement issued 13th March 2020
To all club members, players, parents, coaches and helpers,
Yesterday afternoon Boris Johnson addressed the Country on the Government’s strategy in dealing with the coronavirus and their advice to the General Public about what measures they should take if they are concerned that they may have contracted the virus.
At the present time, the Government has stated that there is “no rationale to close or cancel major sporting events” and has resisted the option to close all the Schools; although this may change as the situation evolves. This situation is of course evolving so incredibly rapidly and the Scottish FA, English FA and FAW have all introduced suspensions to the professional game. The Scottish FA and FAW have gone further and suspended grassroots football or football at all levels.
Our Exec Committee has been in intense discussions today. Our club has a duty of care to all our players and parents/guardians. As such we have taken the incredibly difficult decision to suspend our teams involvement in all games with immediate effect. We will review regularly as the situation evolves but recognise that there is unlikely to be a near term resumption.
This decision has been arrived at after much soul searching. Grassroots football brings large numbers of people from a wide geographic base together, and from a social distancing standpoint we do not believe it is in our members best interests to carry on with games.
We are talking with the leagues about implications and will provide squad coordinators with updates. Squad coordinators will be asked to coordinate with opponents to make them aware of the club position and to cancel all games for this weekend. The club are also suspending training for all age groups with immediate effect.
We hope you understand the very difficult position taken by the club.
Regards,
Buntingford Cougars Exec Committee
