AfricaPress-Tanzania: CAUTION and strict adherence to safety measures must be respected as everything is in place for the Premier League to resume tomorrow in various venues.
Unlike the normal leagues which fans brightly colour the game, this time they will enjoy the good game in accordance to safety directives, all meant to keep them safe from the coronavirus threat.
While opinions vary from sport to sport or nation to nation, one thing seems clear: Social distancing is a sure bet when the league officially returns, hence fans and officials governing the game must respect this or supervise its implementation.
We are delighted to see the government, after holding lengthy talks with sports bodies and health experts, publicly revealed safety plans and directives that will keep league matches away from coronavirus threat.
Tanzania has approached well the measures against virus infection.
Using every-other turnstile, allowing fans into the stadium in sections, letting them out row by row and minimising person-to-person contact, all were well detailed alongside washing hands with running water and covering nose and mouth with a mask.
We caution teams that solely depend on gate collection that financial imperatives should not override safety concerns when the league resumes.
We again insist on respecting safety measures as we are lucky to have games accommodating the fans and not behind closed doors as in other countries.
This is good for our football fans and players since the absence of fans creates a strong void in the atmosphere. But we still warn that the safety of players and other stakeholders must be foolproof or else the Premier League restart might end in catastrophe.
The organisers must ensure fans or supporters are sparsely placed to guarantee their safety and that of players and officials.
But still, we would like to see the return of the league being conducted in the way we have been doing since March 17th this year by ensuring safety of players and audience by staying at homes to watch the match via televisions for those who don’t go to arenas.
We salute all sports bodies engaged in one way or another in the fight against Covid-19 and the return of the league.
We end up thanking the government and sports bodies for realizing the danger of the Covid-19 and for joining a campaign to fight the further spread of deadly virus.
