Football Victoria has updated its Return to Training/Playing Conditions following Sport and Recreation Victoria’s (SRV) release of guidelines for the return to play for community sport.
In line with advice from SRV, junior and senior sport is treated differently. The Return to Training Conditions document provides guidelines for adult sport while the Return to Playing conditions document provides guidelines for junior sport.
Full contact training and competition can resume immediately for juniors including friendly matches. Non-contact training is permitted for senior sport.
Sport and Recreation Victoria stated that only non-contact training or competition was permitted, if at least one participant in a community sport was 19 years old or over.
“From mid-July, subject to the advice of Victoria’s Chief Health Officer and the continued management of the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), adults can resume full-contact training from 13 July and full-contact competition from 20 July,” they said.
Some changes also apply to both junior and adult sport. Clubrooms, change rooms and showers can now be reopened for use at training or games.
The SRV has said that the minimum number participants required to conduct the sport should participate in the activity. Football Victoria is permitting normal squad sizes to undertake training.
Spectators are also allowed at training or games. Groups of up to 10 people are permitted however social distancing protocols must be followed. The groups must also be spread out around the ground.
In its Returning to Training Conditions guidelines, Football Victoria said that the conditions in the document are mandatory to limit the spread of COVID-19.
“Football Victoria’s priority is to safeguard the health and wellbeing of the football community during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Federal and Victorian State governments have announced a roadmap to cautiously reintroduce football in a staged approach,” they said.
“The first stage was a limited return to training. The second stage extended the number of players who could train. The third stage now splits player activity based on age.”
Football in Victoria will resume from early July. NPL Junior Boys are set to resume over 4th and 5th of July. NPL Junior Girls, Community Club Juniors and MiniRoos will resume over the 11th and 12th of July.
July 25-26 will see the the return of Football Victoria NPL Senior, VPLW, State League Seniors and Metropolitan/Masters leagues as part of the updated announcements.
