Former president of the Commonwealth Games Association Mike Fennell says Jamaicans must respect the decisions of the medical community over the prolonged shutdown of football in the country and has blamed the indiscipline of some Jamaicans for the continued restrictive COVID-19 protocols.

Fennell, who was also the president of the Jamaica Olympic Association for over 40 years until he stepped down in 2017, said it was mainly people outside of the sport that had caused the continued restrictions that had affected team sports.

Fennell, once the most powerful man in sports in Jamaica, said Jamaicans should not compare the situation here to other places where football had resumed as in other places strict controls had been put in place to allow for team sports to resume.

“Outside of sports, Jamaica has not demonstrated a good adherence to the protocols and the restrictions that are in place, and which has to my mind contributed to the continuing situation,” he said at Thursday’s monthly meeting of the The Rotary Club of Kingston, where he responded to a question about why the Premier League had not been allowed to restart.

The importance of football to Jamaica and players is not up for debate, Fennell said.

“The debate is what risk would you have to take and if you notice that throughout the world where team sports have resumed, they have resumed with a controlled situation, with a bubble or other types of control,” he said.

Fennell said given the fact that Premier League players live in their respective communities where they were “still intermingling with their communities very closely” presents a risk in itself.

“There are some high risks, and I think we need to respect the decisions of the medical people in how much risk there is to that and how it can be controlled,” he said.

It was not all gloom and doom, Fennell said, as efforts are being made to find a solution that can safely see a return of the widey popular sport.

“I think they are trying to work out some solutions, we may not like the control of the solution, and outside of sports, Jamaica has not demonstrated a good adherence to the protocols and the restrictions…we just have to respect the considerations and the respect of the health authorities in how they are trying to facilitate the resumption of football,” Fennell said.

— Paul Reid