Presteigne St Andrews FC has received confirmation that the Mid Wales League (South) has officially been abandoned for the 2020-21 season.
Congratulations to the League’s executive committee for taking the only realistic decision open to them.
We appreciate that all league committees wanted to give it as long as possible in the hope some sort of football might be played before the end of May but, with government restrictions still being what they are, this is surely now pretty much a non-starter for this season.
In a message to clubs the league secretary Alan Randell said he had been in contact with the executive committee of the Mid Wales League (South) and the Radnorshire Cup.
As a group, they felt it was time to make the decision as a league (and) to agree that no league, league cup and Radnorshire Cup shall take place this season.
Alan went on to underline that the situation in Wales is extremely fragile to say the least, and we are currently in a national lockdown with no end in sight.
The executive felt the health of all their club’s players, officials and their families must take priority.
The executive appreciates everyone wants to resume playing football but they have to be practical.
With the possibility of adverse weather during the winter months and no possible start date from the FAW the executive feels this decision to be the right one.
The executive committee has surely made the right call here – after all, if, for example, the national lockdown were to be eased in mid-February, there’s not much chance of team sports being allowed to resume immediately.
Even if they were allowed to resume at, say, the end of March, this leaves only about six weeks of the season so most people would feel there would be little point in starting up then – not least because two weeks of that would have to be given over for some kind of mini pre-season.
So, let’s hope we can all start again in August or September and get through the 2021-22 season with no such problems.