Prime Minister, Boris Johnson - a keen supporter of Leisure
Leagues - has announced a series of
measures designed to relax the restrictions we have all been living under and
get the country moving again, and rest assured we are confident that the
leagues will be soon operating after long months of inactivity.
We have undertaken a thorough review of all our procedures,
and we can today announce some small changes to make sure our competitions run
perfectly as soon as we kick off again. One of these is a permanent change, the
rest are under constant review.
The main differences you will see at your leagues are as
follows.
First, we will not be allowing you to warm up with our netballs. You must bring a ball from home for practice.
Also, we will only be giving out bibs in exceptional
circumstances (and when we do they will be washed before the following game)
but because of this, you must wear matching colours to be certain of the game
kicking off.
In addition, it is requested that all teams pay for games in
advance using the website, as money is regarded as a spreader of the Covid-19
virus, we need to drastically reduce the handling of cash that our League Staff
are required to undertake.
Social distancing has become something we are all familiar
with, and we would also expect that you stay in groups with your own team, when
you aren’t playing – and whilst our commitment to sportsmanship remains total,
please use common sense and do not shake hands at the end of the game. And wash
your hands wear possible before the match.
Discipline at our leagues is already superb, and we thank
you all for your commitment to that, but we have communicated with all our
referees to tell them of a permanent change to the rules, which will not allow
you within 2m of any of our staff during the match – this will remain in place
even after Covid-19 is no longer with us. If you do not adhere to this, we have
instructed referees to issue a red card.
We have also written to referees to encourage them to
enforce the 5m rule. That is the rule that we already have in place that sees
instances of dissent – which we know are very rare anyway - punishable with an
advancement of 5m.
The government has already given its unwavering commitment to
getting the country fit after this unprecedented period of confinement and our
millions of players worldwide are all ready to get back out on the field, and
we see that as our responsibility to your communities too.
We look forward to seeing you kick off with us very soon. Please
keep an eye on our social media for the very latest.
