Soccer returning to Saskatchewan under phased-in approach

The beautiful game is coming back to Saskatchewan.

Well, sort of.

On Wednesday, the province announced the beginning of Phase 4 of the reopening plan will go ahead on Monday. That will see the return of organized outdoor activities like soccer.

While members of the Saskatchewan Soccer Association (SSA) are excited to return to the pitch, soccer is going to look a little different for at least the first few weeks.

“There will certainly be a modified season,” SSA executive director Doug Pederson said. “We hope that more restrictions are lifted once the health authorities suggest that’s possible, but for now we’re excited to resume soccer in a training mode starting early next week.”

During Pederson’s consultation with the province’s business response team acting as liasons between the many groups affected by the reopening plan and the province, it was deemed that only “minimal” contact is allowed.

“Still maintaining social distancing wherever possible, and trying to continue to avoid physical contact,” Pederson said.

That means soccer games won’t be seen anytime soon as only training and certain drills that allow for physical distancing will be permitted for now, but the province is allowing for some leeway.

“There’s still some additional clarity that would be helpful on that from the government,” Pederson said on the rules handed down by the province. “Drills can be designed in a way that contact is avoided wherever possible, but (health officials) do recognize that within these groups, scrimmages that involve some contact will occur.”

Pederson doesn’t mind the slow approach for now. After weeks of planning, the SSA released its Return to Soccer Plan on June 11.

Under the plan, soccer will resume in four phases, beginning with the first phase that doesn’t allow any physical contact but encourages technical activities that don’t require opposition while still allowing coaches to maintain physical distancing.

Phase 2 is where the SSA sees itself now: allowing one-on-one and three-on-three activities while limiting players to smaller groups in order to prevent any COVID-19 transmission from asymptomatic carriers.

Phase 3 see games resumes first under smaller groups with limited travel and Phase 4 is the resumption of play with no social distancing required.

“We’re asking all of our members to make sure that they start safely, and that they actually start in Phase 1… and that’s important for them to test out their protocols, organization and risk minimization strategies.”

Pederson noted that far less people across the province are involved in soccer this season. Registration for the summer season usually begins in the mid-March to April, which happened to occur right when COVID-19 arrived in the province.

“Certainly the vast majority of our membership has taken a wait and see approach,” he said. “Many of our member organizations are not even offering registration. Our numbers are down substantially.”

Pederson didn’t want to speculate when the province will lift more restrictions to allow more of the sport to come back, but he welcomes the day when the sport he loves returns under the most normal circumstances possible.

“We are very excited to look forward to the future when we are playing the full game, which could be weeks away or months away, but we don’t know yet,” he said.