MARIGOT—Saint-Martin Football Association (SMFA) recently presented national civil protection certificates for competence in basic first aid to eight soccer referees and coaches at a ceremony in Fantastic Hotel, Concordia.
The eight are Franka Saintval, Rex-Allen Lake, Ochie Hughes, Andy Cousinard, Anthony Maricel, Marcena Jasaron (instructor), Jeffrey Wesley, and Emile Charly. Since July 18 some 17 persons have received their certification.
Those who passed the first aid course are all nationally registered. The course was financed by St. Martin Football Association with the support of the Red Cross and Association Française des Premier Secours.
The association’s Development Director and board member Lou Baly explained it is an obligation for teams to have qualified first aid persons on the bench during games. He recalled an incident in December 2019 when someone began firing a gun during a game and a spectator was shot. It was just by luck that there was an off-duty doctor and a nurse close by who saved the boy’s life.
Certified workshops have also been held for the new generation of referees from August 6 to 9 and courses are currently being held on the latest technical developments for administrating football in all French territories.
“St. Martin is maybe the last territory to not only be equipped but acquainted with the latest methods for filing registration of players, substitution forms, referee forms etc which is now all computerised like it is for the World Cup,” said Baly.
He added the association is hard at work rebuilding and restoring credibility under new President Aristide Connor. The association is somewhat held back because of lack of playable grounds since Hurricane Irma destroyed all the sports facilities. However, efforts are being made to install a playable surface at the Albert Richards Stadium for the benefit of training soccer players in Sandy Ground.
While a new synthetic field was laid at Thelbert Carti Stadium about a month ago changing rooms still have to be installed there before the field can be turned over to clubs and associations.
With a new football season about to start at the end of September, attention has also been directed to implementing protocols for COVID-19 protection.
“Players on the bench will be wearing masks and there will be distancing but dressing rooms will not be used in the way they were used before” Baly explained.” They will be regularly disinfected with separate entry and exit arrows in the changing rooms. We are also considering a one-minute break during the game for hand washing.
“Hugging will definitely be prohibited as well as shouting at close distance, but high fives should be acceptable as long as that lasts only seconds and the players revert back to distancing. All players will have their temperature checked when they enter the ground. The challenge for us will be with the very young players, to get them to understand why we need to do this.”
