The date for the long-awaited return of the Jamaica Premier League (JPL) has finally been decided and football is set to return on Saturday, June 26, 2021.

The announcement was made by Nasha Douglas, the chief marketing officer, at presenting sponsor Digicel on a conference call held by the Professional Football Jamaica Limited (PFJL) Thursday morning.

Douglas was thankful for and excited about the start of the new season.

“I want to thank everyone who made this possible including the Government of Jamaica and the team from the PFJL. This is an amazing day for all of us. We are very excited to get this started. It’s going to be an interesting season and at Digicel we are all looking forward to making it spectacular for our viewers and our fans,” she said.

Chairman of the PFJL, Chris Williams, gave the details about the format of the league which has had to be cut short to fit in the smaller time frame than normal.

The league will have one round, instead of the usual three rounds, and the teams will play each other in a round-robin format. The top six teams will vie for a spot in the final, while the bottom six teams will play in another round-robin format to determine their final placings in the league.

The top two teams will advance directly to the semi-finals, while the next four teams in the top six will participate in a round-robin tournament to decide which two will advance to the semi-finals.

In the semi-final round, the top team will play the fourth-placed team, while second place will play third place over two legs. The final will be a one-off match on Sunday, September 26, 2021.

The “bottom six” teams will play in a round-robin format after the first round to determine final placings as financial compensation is linked to the standings, as well as to ensure that the teams get more than just 11 games in the season.

The dates for the play-offs have not yet been determined.

The matches will be played at two preferred venues this season, the National Stadium and Sabina Park, while the alternative venues will be the Stadium East Field and the Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence at The UWI if those venues are unavailable.

The matches are set to be played on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, with mid-week games being an option if required.

COVID-19 marshals are being trained and all players and club officials will be tested ahead of the start of the season. Should players test positive for COVID-19 during the season, they will be isolated and quarantined, while the other players that test negative will be allowed to continue to play in the competition.

Teams will be allowed to resume training once all the training grounds have been given the greenlight by health officials who have been carrying out checks since last week. The go-ahead is expected to be given in a matter of days.

The television broadcast partner of the JFPL is SportsMax who will announce the free to air broadcast partner shortly. Details are being finalised as to who the radio partner will be.

Details are also still being worked out for a specific number of games to be streamed by a yet to be named European partner.

Portmore United are the defending champions of the Premier League.