The Perthshire amateur football league season has been declared null and void.
Both division one and two had barely taken off when the coronavirus pandemic resulted in a pause of play.
While non-contact training is now permitted, contact sport for adults is not set to return until May 17.
And with that in mind an overwhelming majority of clubs decided the current league seasons should be abandoned with immediate effect.
But teams do have fixtures to look forward to after it was agreed to play ‘mini-league’ district cups when restrictions allow.
The Perthshire Amateur Football Association (PAFA) is now in the process of organising three mini leagues for the Marshall Cup, Perth and District Cup and North Perthshire Cup.
An email to member clubs read: “I would ask all clubs to confirm whether or not they wish to participate in these competitions by Sunday, April 18.
“Depending on the numbers in each mini-league we will have to decide whether teams play each other once or whether home and away games would be appropriate. This will depend on the time available to us.
“Thanks for your co-operation in these unusual and difficult circumstances.”
President of the PAFA, Tom Latto, said: “Some teams might not want to enter a competition at this late stage.
“But hopefully we will get them all in and have the Marshall Cup, Perth and District Cup and the North Perthshire Cup.
“We anticipate, if we get the go-ahead for May 17 as expected, there would be a couple of weeks for teams to get fully trained and perhaps a friendly before going into competition.”
While there is disappointment that no more league action will take place this season, as time went on Latto sensed the null and void decision would be the sensible call.
He said: “I expected everyone to go ahead with the null and void. To try and complete the league would’ve taken quite some time.
“It would have taken us way into August. I think everyone recognised that as being unrealistic.”
Reflecting on the past year of amateur football, Latto said: “It has been frustrating and we have missed the football like nothing on earth.
“Not having a game to watch on a Saturday has been pretty difficult.
“But hopefully things are on the right track, we can get back playing and go into next season without the prospect of other lockdowns.
“We’re not sure what will happen in three months time but we can just keep our fingers-crossed and hope we get back to normality.”
