Photo: Rondee Smith on the go for defending champions Portmore United during the aborted 2019-2020 Jamaica Premier League season.
Defending champions Portmore United will finally get a chance to make it a hattrick of wins in the Jamaica Premier League as a date has finally been set for the long-awaited return of the competition.
Ms. Nasha Douglas, the Chief Marketing Officer at Presenting Sponsors Digicel, revealed the start date of Saturday June 26th, 2021 on a conference call held by the Professional Football Jamaica Limited (PFJL) this morning.
Ms. Douglas said she was excited about the start of the new season and hoped that it would prove to be spectacular for the viewing public.
“I want to thank everyone who made this possible including the government of Jamaica and the team from the PFJL. This is an amazing day for all of us. We are very excited to get this started. It’s going to be an interesting season and at Digicel we are all looking forward to making it spectacular for our viewers and our fans,” she said.
The details about the format of the league which has had to be cut short to fit in the smaller time frame than normal were given by Chairman of the PFJL, Chris Williams
The league will have one round, instead of the usual three rounds and the teams will play each other in a round-robin format. The top six teams will vie for a spot in the final, while the bottom six teams will play in another round-robin format, to determine their final placings in the league.
The top two teams will advance directly to the semifinals, while the next four teams in the top six, will participate in a round robin tournament, to decide which two who will advance to the semifinals.
The semifinal round will see the first placed team from the regular season, play the fourth placed team, while second place will play third place over two legs. The final will be a one-off match on Sunday September 26th, 2021.
The six teams that fail to make the playoffs will play in a round-robin format after the first round. They will all play each other once to determine final placings which are directly tied to the financial compensation package, as well as to ensure that the teams play more than just 11 regular season games.
There are two preferred venues for the competition this season. The National Stadium and Sabina Park will be the main venues, while the alternative venues will be the Stadium East Field and the Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence at the UWI, if there are any clashes.
The matches will be played on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, subject to curfew times, with mid-week games being an option if required.
Covid-19 marshals are being trained and all players and club officials will be tested ahead of the start of the season. Should players test positive for Covid-19 during the season, they will be isolated and quarantined, while the other players that test negative will be allowed to continue to play in the competition.
All of the training grounds are being inspected and once all of them have been given the greenlight by health officials training will be allowed to resume, which is expected to happen in a few days.
The television broadcast partner of the JFPL is SportsMax and they will announce their free to air broadcast partner soon. Details are being finalized with the radio partner for the league.
A specific number games are to be streamed by a European partner, who is yet to be named.
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