Football venues still closed but Premier League given green light to restart
- Only swimming pools will reopen this week as the government relaxes social distancing measures
- The Football Association obtains special permission to use public facilities provided that people involved adhere to strict hygiene requirements
While football pitches are closed to the public amid pandemic control measures, the Hong Kong Football Association has been given an exemption to use venues for the restart of the local Premier League on Saturday.
The competition has been suspended since March.
Only swimming pools can reopen on Friday which have not been allowed to open under the last three phases of the pandemic owing to the higher infection risk involved as the government relaxed measures on hygiene control. Team game facilities such as soccer pitches and basketball courts, however, are still closed.
However, Premier League games will be featured again in public venues after a long absence since its suspension in March due to the pandemic outbreak.
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“The government still has some reservation reopening football grounds as close body contact occurs in our sport which may cause infection,” said association chairman Pui Kwan-kay. “But we have been given special permission to use the facilities for our league competitions, provided we follow all the strict hygiene requirements.
“There may be quite still a long way to go before we can welcome back our fans to the stadiums but at least we can now have the chance to finish the season before looking forward to the new season.”
All players of the six teams out of a total ten that will take part in the remaining season have already gone through two rounds of Covid-19 testing and are now undergoing home quarantine since resuming training two weeks ago. A final round of testing will take place on Thursday before the kick off two days later.
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There will be a maximum number of people capped at 150 attending each match, including players, officials, sponsors and possibly the media. Matches will be broadcast live through the internet with no spectators allowed.
Meanwhile, swimming coach Sherry Tsai Hiu-wai has welcomed the government’s decision to reopen swimming pools which have been closed since July 29 due to the pandemic.
“Although there is still the group gathering rule of allowing no more than four persons as a group inside the facility, we hope the situation can improve gradually with more relaxed measures,” said the former Hong Kong Olympian. “We still need to wear a mask when not swimming and this is reasonable as we have to take prevention measures to avoid infection.”
According to the rules, a person is required to wear a mask at all times inside the venue except swimming, or having a shower, or when the person is doing warm-up exercises with a distance of at least 1.5 metres from other people.
The number of persons allowed at any one time must not exceed 50 per cent of the designed capacity of the swimming pool; each group must consist of no more than four persons; there must be at least 1.5 metres between each group.
