Canadian Premier League commissioner David Clanachan vowed there will be a 2021 season, even as he pushed back its May 22 start date due to the stubborn voracity of the pandemic.
Don鈥檛 count out a league that managed to play a 2020 season, in a bubble in Prince Edward Island, during the first wave of the pandemic last summer.
Clanachan, in a statement released Wednesday, promised another 鈥渃reative and innovative solution鈥� this year with the announcement to be made May 15.
鈥淚t鈥檚 100 per cent that we will play this season,鈥� said Rob Friend, general manager and CEO of Island-based CPL team Pacific FC.
鈥淲e鈥檙e quite creative, as we showed last year. It鈥檚 no surprise we鈥檝e had to push back this season. We鈥檙e monitoring the situation, assessing the vaccine rollout and where we鈥檒l be by summer and fall, and are confident of a bigger and longer season this year. We鈥檙e working on something awesome. More concrete details will be announced soon. We鈥檙e finalizing the plans.鈥�
Friend expressed optimism fans will be allowed to some percentage of capacity.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 just from what we know about outdoor venues being safer places,鈥� he said.
Clanachan addressed the media and fans through his statement.
鈥淲e are committed to playing our third season of CPL soccer in 2021,鈥� said the league commissioner.
鈥淵ou can count on us delivering as we did with the Island Games [P.E.I. hub season] in 2020. Clearly, the country is struggling through a third wave of the pandemic and we need to adjust accordingly. We are going to delay the start of the season, but we are still completely committed to playing our season. We have pivoted and we are working on a number of scenarios to adapt to the latest situation. We did it last year. We know what it takes, we have the playbook, and we know how to execute flawlessly, as we did in 2020.鈥�
The CPL, sa国际传媒鈥檚 long-awaited domestic pro soccer league, is entering its third season with eight franchises stretching coast-to-coast from Victoria to Halifax.
PFC is training at its indoor facility in Langford. According to Canadian Press, FC Edmonton and Cavalry FC of Calgary are also in full training-camp mode in Alberta and Atletico Ottawa in Spain, with its famous parent club Atletico Madrid, while HFX is allowed to train in small groups in Nova Scotia. Forge FC of Hamilton, York United of Toronto and Valour FC of Winnipeg are awaiting OK鈥檚 from the respective Ontario and Manitoba governments to begin training.
鈥� With a file from Canadian Press
