Football: NCEL suspends all league fixtures until January

The Toolstation NCEL has suspended all league matches until January 2021.
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A league statement said: "The Toolstation NCEL management board held an emergency meeting on Monday evening to discuss whether to resume the league season when the COVID-19 national lockdown ends this week.

"The league conducted a poll over the weekend to gauge the opinions of our clubs about playing fixtures behind closed doors due to the tier system which comes into effect on Wednesday 2nd December, 2020.

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"As it stands, 37 of our 40 teams will be placed into Tier 3 and therefore will be unable to admit spectators to matches.

"80% of our clubs said that they would not want to play matches behind closed doors.

"The NCEL management committee has taken the view of member clubs into account and has decided to suspend ALL league fixtures until January 2021 at the earliest.

"Although the tier system will be reviewed every two weeks, indications are that most clubs will remain in Tier 3 for the foreseeable future so the situation is highly unlikely to change when the first review takes place on Wednesday 16th December, 2020.

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"The NCEL will await the outcome of the second scheduled tier review on Wednesday 30th December, 2020, before considering whether matches can feasibly restart in January.

"A further update will follow once this decision is made."