Fadhil Yunus
The National Football Association of Brunei Darussalam (NFABD) decided to cancel the Brunei Super League 2020 (BSL) due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Participating clubs only completed two games in the BSL 2020, with 224 matches yet to be played. The league was initially slated to finish in November this year.
The Brunei football governing body has also announced the cancellation of the under-16 and under-19 tournaments as players need to readjust with their studies after the 86-day school closure due to COVID-19.
The decisions made through the NFABD Competition Standing Committee meeting took into consideration the weather conditions in the Sultanate.
The country is undergoing an uncertain weather condition, which may render the fields to be unsafe.
NFABD intended to replace the league straight with an FA Cup, with further formats and structure still in consideration until the next de-escalation.
The cut-off date to run the FA Cup will be by November 1, according to a press release.
“Competitions are slated to run in mid-November and hopefully will finish by the second week of December with the possibility of converting the NFABD artificial field to a competition venue,” the press release added.
This is to select the club which will represent the country in the 2021 AFC Cup edition.
NFABD also informed that the next national call-up in the FIFA calendar will be from October 5-13.
General Manager of Indera Sports Club (ISC) Rosdin bin Haji Abdul Aziz welcomes NFABD’s decision. He said, “ISC continues to conduct training to maintain the momentum of the players for a few months now according to NFABD procedures.”
