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Belgium officially shuts down football season

The eight-team Belgian American Football League, BAFL, has announced that the planned, shortened fall top level Elite division football season has been cancelled outright.

After a meeting of the board of the BAFL, an unanimous decision was made scrap all plans for any further play in 2020. The BAFL Elite Division consists of the Belgian Black Angels, Limburg Shotguns, Ghent Gators, Ostend Pirates, Brussels Tigers, Liege Monarchs, Charleroi Coal Miners and Antwerp Argonauts.

We wish to inform you of the latest decisions taken relating to the 2020 championship, both for the senior tackle en flag football, and concerning the alternative championship due to start mid-September as well as flag football.

During an online meeting of the BAFL Board on 31/7 at 8 pm, we discussed the different rules currently implemented, on national and regional level. The following points have been analyzed and taken into account:

  • the current possibilities and restrictions concerning contact sports
  • the current development of Covid-19 and possible futures regulations
  • the specific situation of cities and provinces
  • the needed requirements to play our sport in a safe way
  • the necessary protocols in case of contamination of one or more participants during the competition

etc.

After discussion and vote it was unanimously decided that no competition would be organized in 2020. In consequence no Belgian champion will be designated. The decision concerns senior tackle AND flag football.

Coronavirus situation i Belgium

Belgium has one of the highest rates of death due to the coronavirus in the world. There have been a total of 69, 402 cases recorded in Belgium with 9,845 deaths attributed to the virus which is 849 per million population.  Still, although there has been a spike in the number of news cases in Belgium over the last 10 days, the number of deaths due to the coronavirus has remained very low.

Recently, Belgium’s prime minister put the brakes on the country’s coronavirus exit plan, unveiling a set of drastic social distancing measures aimed at avoiding a new general lockdown amid a surge of COVID-19 infections. Contacts outside every household is limited to the same five people over the next four weeks, as the so-called “social bubble” now applies to a house and its occupants and not to individuals. Belgian residents are currently allowed to meet with 15 different people per week. The measures don’t apply to children under the age of 12. The new measures also include lowering crowd limits at public events to 100 people indoors and 200 people outdoors.  The government is recommending that shoppers run errands alone  and limit the time they spend in stores to 30 minutes. In addition, family or friends’ gatherings —including wedding receptions — are limited to a maximum of 10 people.

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