Rotherham teams face extra lay-off as league suspends fixtures until 2021

ROTHERHAM'S three top amateur clubs will play no more league football this year after the decision was taken to suspend the Northern Counties East League.

The league conducted a poll over the weekend to gauge the opinions of its clubs about playing fixtures behind closed doors due to the tier system which comes into effect tomorrow.

Maltby Main, Parkgate and Swallownest are among the 37 teams out of 40 teams who will be placed into Tier 3 and therefore unable to admit spectators to matches. A total of 80 per cent of NCEL clubs said that they would not want to play games behind closed doors.

After taking the view of member clubs into account, the league's management committee has decided to suspend all league fixtures until January 2021 at the earliest. 

In a statement, the league added: "Although the tier system will be reviewed every two weeks, indications are that most clubs will remain in Tier 3 for the foreseeable future and the situation is highly unlikely to change when the first review takes place on December 16.

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

"It is proposed that the committee will meet again on January 2. A further update will follow once this decision is made."

Maltby still have 30 league games to play in the Premier Division while in Division One Parkgate have played nine of their 38 fixtures and Swallownest only seven.

Maltby Main are scheduled to visit Consett in the FA Vase this weekend.