Football suspended for this weekend

ALL football that was to be played in New Zealand this weekend has been suspended.

Given the additional Covid-19 community cases announced, it would seem “extremely unlikely” that New Zealand would be at a reduced alert level by Saturday morning, Central Football chief executive Darren Mason said.

“Therefore, Central Football, along with the other six federations and New Zealand Football, have suspended all football to be played this weekend,” he said.

“This includes all junior, youth and senior football, the Unison Junior Festival to be held in Napier and the FTC (Federation Talent Centre) game days scheduled to be held in Whanganui and Gisborne.”

Central Football staff would be in touch by email with all FTC parents and caregivers with information on what this would mean for the remainder of the programme, Mason said.

They were looking at rescheduling the Unison Junior Festival in Napier to the following Saturday, and Hawke’s Bay operations manager Shane McKenzie would contact clubs about the arrangements for this.

“We remain hopeful that we will return to some normality early next week,” Mason said.

“We will be doing whatever we can to ensure that the remaining scheduled games for this season are completed.”