La Horquetta Rangers owner Richard Ferguson is set to capitalise on plans by Minister of Sports and Community Development Shamfa Cudjoe to have contact sports back in action this year.
Cudjoe in an interview in late December last year, said she had a proposal outlining a safe return to contact sports to deliver to the Ministry of Health and its line minister Terrance Deyalsingh on Monday, December 20, 2021, noting that she could not wait to see contact sports return to some semblance of normalcy.
In her proposal, she said, " What we have done at the Ministry of Sports and Community Development, in collaboration with SporTT, is we've developed a proposal which we are presenting to the ministry of health.
I looked at it and I asked for some part of it to be revised, and what we are proposing is for sport to be done by vaccinated athletes only, as well as play in a bubble, and at that place, we can control the crowds.
At first, we want to propose a first phase where we don't want to have any spectators coming out and we will see how that goes for a short period of time. Once that goes well, we will be making a request for phase two to have vaccinated spectators."
Ferguson, in an interview during a Christmas giveaway to the La Horquetta community at the club's home ground last year, said he was happy for the help by minister Cudjoe and promised to do their part.
" We, in fact, have a proposal that involves playing football in a safe zone, that is, the ground here in La Horquetta can be used as a controlled environment.
It is secure and we can control vaccinated people in and out, vaccinated players, vaccinated coaches, vaccinated spectators, which would all fall in line with the government's policy, in terms of bars and restaurants, and other activities.
So we're quite capable of doing it and hopefully, look forward to a positive response going forward," Ferguson said.
In October last year, Ferguson wrote to Deyalsingh asking for his Ascension Football Tournament to take place, outlining close to 30 guidelines to be used to ensure the safety of all involved. However, the minister (Deyalsingh) blanked the tournament because of the danger posed by the delta variant of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Following that, a group of footballers, coaches, administrators and other football enthusiasts took to the streets of Port of Spain calling for football to be given an opportunity to play like any other industry.
The Ascension football tournament caters for action among the Pro and Super League teams, Regional Association teams and women's football.