England Deaf Football

Updated as at Thursday 16th July 2020

Hello all – Oliver here. I’m briefing you all with current update of COVID-19 restrictions across Football currently.

England Deaf Football (EDF) are not responsible for briefing our Deaf football clubs on guidance related to COVID-19 from Government / FA. This is under FA and County FAs – where clubs are affiliated to. FA have responsibility to update and brief clubs on ongoing restrictions relating to football. Clubs can brief players/squad.

We are fully aware that information accessible for Deaf and BSL users from FA is not great – EDF continue to remind FA of the importance in provision of information in BSL for Deaf teams/clubs. We encourage our clubs to remind their County FAs the importance of provision of information in accessible format.

FA website have dedicated link relating to COVID-19 updates – http://www.thefa.com/about-football-association/covid-19 – this is regularly updated and please continue to visit this.

I will summarise current guidance on restriction across football activities.

No usual football activities can resume currently – training can resume under strict group of 6 people in a ‘bubble’ – there can be more than one bubble – but has to have the same 6 people in each bubble throughout training session from start to finish. This must be the same 6 people in a bubble for future training sessions.

Balls, cones and goal posts all need to be regularly sanitised and wiped clean at start of each session, throughout session and at the end. You must bring and use your own drink/refreshments.

Upon arrival at training session, you must not gather together within close contact, drive to session or walk where possible, upon arrival – head straight into your bubble group, ready to start. When session is finished, avoid gathering and go out of venue, straight back home.

If you do not feel well and may have symptoms of COVID-19 – it is important that you do not go to training at all. Stay at home.

It is important we all comply with current restriction – do not ignore or cut corners – this is important to comply with the current guidance.

EDF takes the COVID-19 restriction guidance seriously – we ask clubs to comply to prevent spread of virus and keep us safe. Respect the guidances, preserve and work together.

If EDF see or hear of any of our clubs breaching the current guidance and having no respect for preventing of spread of COVID-19 – we may decide not to accept applications from them for our new season 2020/21 competitions. The sooner we prevent the virus, the sooner we all can resume football activities once again.

We also want to take this opportunity to mark expectations on resuming football season. Sadly, things will not be same again as they were before, for a while yet. We do not expect smooth season without further disruptions – there are talks of Second Wave coming in autumn/winter – which increases the likelihood of further lockdowns/restrictions.

This is not something we decide quickly and easily – we comply with FA and government advice – and will implement these as quickly as these are necessary. Safety is important – if another lockdown is necessary, Football will be disrupted again. There is huge possibility of season being disrupted throughout.

EDF takes the well-being health and safety of all our players seriously – we want to support our part in preventing worsening of the virus.

This might be lot for some of you to take in – the take away message is – COVID-19 is still around us – they have not disappeared and gone away. We all have to play our part in taking precautions and stay safe.

Thank you for watching and stay safe. Keep connected with FA for further updates. Take care

Updated as at Monday 6th April 2020

Hello all – I am Oliver, General Secretary, England Deaf Football

We are updating our Deaf Football community following up to the statement we share out on the temporary suspension of EDF Season 2019/20 due to the government advice over coronavirus, ban of social gathering, stay at home and social distancing to stop the spreading of coronavirus.

Since the suspension of season, EDF committees have held meeting and also engaged with clubs in our discussions on current position and next steps. In conjunction with clubs, it is regrettable that we announce the 2019/20 season will end.

What this means? Sadly, there will be no league, challenge cup/plate winners and the final league positioning will not count. Ending the season will allow EDF and clubs to start plan and prepare for the new 2020/21 season. Naturally, we all would feel this circumstance is very strange to us all, including some of our clubs, not being able to compete for trophies.

This is the decision based best on the importance of doing our part to prevent the spread of this virus. We also do not know how long the social restriction, social distancing and stay at home – let alone when it is safe to play football again. Trying to finish the season in short time amid other personal commitments throughout summer/pre-season will be difficult for all.

This gives us, EDF committees, best preparation and planning for the new season – which we are aiming to start around August/September, but this could be delayed pending on advice of Government, and we will continue to be guided by FA. Football will resume as soon as it is safe to do so.

This also affects our Futsal competitions scheduled for summer, which is now cancelled. Our Futsal committees will work on fitting in competitions for October to February and hope to release details as soon as it is practicable possible.

To conclude, we, EDF are disappointed that this has come down to this circumstance – we must move forward together and start again. On behalf of EDF committees, we want you all to look after ourselves and those around us, families and friends, comply with the government guidance of staying at home and avoiding social gathering which is important in fighting this coronavirus together.

Look after yourselves and take care.

END

Updated as at Monday 16th March 2020

At England Deaf Football, we are continuing to monitor the Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation day by day and keep up-to-date with the advice issued from the Government, Public Health England and the Football Association. The situation is changing every day and we anticipate further restrictions and updates in the days & weeks ahead.

As a proactive measurement, we have taken the decision to temporarily suspend all planned fixtures for the remainder of March and the whole of April.

This means that all scheduled fixtures are postponed and we are, effectively, pausing our season for the time being. We will be working with clubs to re-arrange fixtures and extend the season into, at least, June/July time, which will obviously result in the EDF season finishing later than originally planned.

At this stage, we don’t have confirmed dates for rescheduled fixtures, but these will be released gradually as we work through the huge logistics issues presented by the current situation and receive further information from the Government, Public Health England and the Football Association.

We are aware that this decision will have many consequences for clubs in the weeks ahead, impacting on the end of the season and, particularly, on the Futsal tournaments due to be held in the summer.

We take the health & wellbeing of our clubs, players and officials very seriously, but we also recognise that the decision made by EDF may also have an impact on some of the players‘ wellbeing by preventing opportunities for them to participate in football matches – for which we apologise.

We will communicate with clubs again, at the earliest opportunity, should circumstances change or if the advice issued is changed or updated, but expect further communication on April 3rd, if not before. In the meantime, we will continue to work with clubs to seek best the possible solutions for all concerned when re-arranging fixtures.

We strongly advise everyone to follow Government advice on keeping ourselves protected and minimising the risk of catching or passing on Coronavirus.

If anybody has any of the following symptoms:

Fever and high temperature;
Cough (ongoing or new cough);
or Flu-like symptoms,

you must stay at home (self-isolate) and avoid contact with others where possible, especially elderly people, for at least 7 days.

For further information and to view videos in BSL on the Coronavirus, we recommend visiting the SignHealth website – https://www.signhealth.org.uk/coronavirus/ – as well as following other various Deaf Organisations through Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for regular updates.

For any queries – please contact your club secretaries at first instance.

Stay safe and look after yourselves and those around us.

Oliver
General Secretary, England Deaf Football

Updated as at Friday 13th March 2020

At England Deaf Football – we want to give some information to clubs and our supporters – on the current situation with Coronavirus. We continue to monitor the situation day by day and follow advice from Government, Public Health and Football Association.

We are aware the situation can change at short time and day by day – at this present time – we will continue with our scheduled matches/fixtures across England Deaf Football including our Semi-Finals and Finals in April and May.

We will communicate out at earliest opportunity should circumstance/advice be changed or updated – which will have implications on our matches and our clubs and supporters.

We strongly advise everyone to follow Government advice on keeping ourselves protected and minimise risks of catching/passing on Coronavirus.

If anyone have any of the following symptoms:

Fever and high temperatures
Cough (ongoing or new cough)
Flu-like symptoms

They are advised to stay at home and not attend any events including football matches.

Clubs may decide not to have handshakes prior to and after games – we ask clubs to abide with good sportsmanship – and would encourage positive attitude (positive gestures, fist bumps, elbow bumps)

For further informations and to view videos in BSL on Coronavirus – we recommend you visit SignHealth – https://www.signhealth.org.uk/coronavirus/

At any time – all queries should go to your clubs secretaries who can contact EDF officials.