Dear Members,
I hope this message finds you well and you and your families are keeping healthy and fit in these unprecedented times.
We at Verona appreciate that balancing life’s recent challenges has been extremely difficult with the added pressure of our players being unable to play football. You can rest assured we will have them back playing as soon as we fulfill our obligations with the FAI’s safe return to training protocols which entails a huge amount of work and logistical challenges. Our COVID-19 committee is on course to fulfilling the necessary risk assessments and has appointed designated compliance officers to each team. We will also be in touch with parents, players and coaches prior to a comeback with important safety guidelines as everyone will need to play their part in a safer return.
We would also like to assure you our staff have continued to keep the operations of the club going to ensure we hit the ground running once we are allowed to reopen. Our pitches in Coolmine Park, Coolmine School and Parish Field are in excellent condition due to that continued maintenance.With this in mind, it’s important to remind coaches that any team training is prohibited on our grounds until an official restart and failure to adhere to this will contravene our code of conduct and insurance policy terms.
The following are proposed dates for football resumption once we’ve fulfilled our FAI return to training protocol obligations:
June 22nd – Proposed safe return to training for all Verona teams. (To be confirmed officially by the club prior to that date)
August 16th – Verona (Pro) Academy to resume for 4-8 yr olds.
August 28th – League matches can resume for our LSL teams who will complete their current 2019/20 season at senior level.
September 5th – MGL games begin for our schoolgirls teams for the new 2020/21 season.
September 12th – DDSL matches begin for our schoolboy teams for the new 2020/21 season.
All decisions and dates will be subject to change on the advice of the HSE and the FAI medical team led by Director Dr Alan Byrne.
On a separate note, we were also disappointed to announce that our annual Mini Leagues and AGM have been postponed for the month of June and we will keep you fully updated if and when it’s possible to plan for these to happen in the future.
Finally, I would like to wish you and your families continued health and look forward to seeing you all again in the coming weeks. Verona will be fully compliant in ensuring a safe environment for our players, coaches and members and will follow all aspects of our FAI protocol obligations prior tothat return. In the meantime we ask for your patience and request any support you can offer our club in the future.
Yours in sport
Luka Grzan
(Verona FC Chairman)
