The North West Counties League has been suspended for the second time following the new Tier allocations.
Most of the clubs have been placed into Tier 4 which means they cannot play fixtures. Our Yorkshire clubs Golcar United and Steeton remain in Tier 3.
The League have set no end date for the suspension with the statement saying it is “until further notice”.
League chairman Paul Lawlor said: “Following the announcement today by the UK Government placing the majority of areas in the North West into Tier 4 – the League’s emergency committee has no choice but to once again suspend the League season with effect from midnight.
“The FA issued the following guidance (see below) for T4 areas last week, which we didn’t circulate at the time as it wasn’t applicable to us, but for the avoidance of doubt, non-elite sport is not allowed at all, either the playing of matches or training and players cannot travel into or out of T4.
“At this moment in time we will not be setting any dates on when or if we will resume again but I will begin consulting with clubs in due course to ascertain their opinions on a way forward. It is a disappointing end to a very difficult year but the health and wellbeing over all concerned has to be the priority.”
The suspension places real doubt as to whether the North West Counties will finish. The League started later than everyone else as the first games were played in October and some teams across the three Divisions have only played three matches.