Chung joins Speid in opposing ISSA’s six-day rule

General secretary of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) Dennis Chung agrees with Technical Committee chairman and Cavalier sporting director Rudolph Speid that the six-day rest rule imposed by the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) on schoolboy footballers playing in the Jamaica Premier League (JPL), is not in the best interest of all and needs revisiting.

From the 1990s up to this season, it was generally the practice for schoolboys to refrain from playing senior football competitions until the schoolboy season was completed or their teams exited the competition, but it was an unwritten rule which all parties upheld, Chung noted.

At the launch of the 2024 schoolboy football season, governing body for high-school sports, ISSA, revealed they would be putting the ruling in writing and would allow schoolboys to participate in the JPL and other senior competitions such as the Tier II, Super and Major League competitions. However, once a schoolboy participates in a senior football competition, that player would have to observe a six-day rest period before he can be eligible to play in another schoolboy game.

Speid argued that the move will hinder the development of the country’s most promising youth players, as well as put the clubs on a collision path with the schools over players, which will eventually force the players to make a choice.

ISSA’s main reasons for implementing the six-day rule is to protect players’ health and prevent over-exertion and, like Speid, Chung believes clubs and schools are more than medically equipped to manage players’ recovery.

“The six-day rule makes no sense. No organisation should be putting in a written rule saying they want to manage how people manage their health.

“If that’s the case, that means the government can decide what you can eat. So I agree with what Speid said,” Chung commented.

“I don’t agree with it being a written rule. They could say to the clubs ‘you manage it’, so people don’t play one day after the other.

“But we are talking about people who need to develop. When you keep a youth from developing, he misses out, as scouts look mostly at clubs. So you will prevent a youth from developing and he will have to put off his ambitions,” Chung added.

He now wants ISSA to sit with all the stakeholders and try to formulate a ruling that will be a win-win for all involved.

“There should have been consultation. Has it even been discussed with the students and people who are playing? There needs to be discussions around it, especially with the affiliates that are affected and the primary affiliates, the clubs. They could have gone to the PFJL (Professional Football Jamaica Limited) and ask what they think about it and maybe meet halfway. So the rule needs to be revisited and have consultation, and I have no doubt they will come to a more pragmatic decision, that would be a win-win decision,” he said.

livingston.scott@gleanerjm.com