THE coronavirus pandemic situation in Wales has led to the future of football appearing bleak with all activity suspended after the National Sport Group (NSG) decided to remove an elite status designation provided to the top levels, namely the JD Cymru Premier, JD Cymru North and JD Cymru South.

The NSG decision was made in the context of the rapid spread of Covid-19.

The Football Association of Wales announced that all non-professional and non-elite activity, including all junior football, detailed in the authority’s Return to Play Protocols, would be suspended during the Welsh Government’s Alert Level 4 lockdown.

A spokesperson for the JD Premier said: “Although fixtures between professional clubs are permitted during the lockdown, the league decided that no games would be played for three weeks and the situation reviewed on Tuesday, January 12.”

The spokesperson added: “In view of the public health crisis, it seems most unlikely that matters will change.”

With the top tier in Welsh football now forced to sit it out, it gives very little hope of football returning in the lower tiers such as the Costcutter Ceredigion League, where clubs abandoned training activity long before Level 4 lockdown.