Northerns Football Club goes online

While Northerns Football Club has not been able to return to training at Reddam House Waterfall, and may not do so for some time, coaches and players have still been active during the lockdown.

The club would be midway through the soccer season if the coronavirus pandemic had not enforced a nationwide lockdown this year.But Northerns has maintained training through online Zoom lessons throughout, which they have provided at a much lower rate, having suspended all normal fees going forward.

Northerns is also a partner club of Coerver Coaching South Africa and has sourced online training videos and programmes from them.”Children want human interaction and so we have seen the online training not being as popular as normal training was,” said club owner, Theodora Crozét.

“The little income from this and donations from our players’ parents, however, has helped us support out 10 coaches during this time.”

Crozét added she believed it was unlikely soccer would be allowed to be played by the government anytime soon, and maybe not until next year.However, when physical training did resume, the club would take its lead from the South African Football Association about safety protocols and how soccer could be played.

Crozét speculated that matches would not be played at the start and soccer clubs would have to screen and take the temperatures of players on arrival.”We will have to sanitise the soccer balls and cones before and after practice, I think, and only coaches will touch the equipment.

“We will probably divide up the age groups between different days and there will be no wearing of bibs.”

Details: Northerns Football Club theodora@northernsfc.co.za;084 778 8223.