There will be no schoolboys’ football for the 2020 season after the organizers, the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association made the decision on Monday to pull the plug after a spike in COVID-19 positive cases across the island.

ISSA said there would be no sports in the Christmas term as a result of the upsurge that also saw a record 116 new cases been discovered between Saturday and Sunday, the first time the island had seen triple-digit results in one 24 hours period since the first case in March.

It will be the first time since 1997 when threats were made against the principal of Charlie Smith High in Kingston, that there will be no schoolboys football competition.

There were plans for football, netball, basketball, and swimming between mid-October and December but ISSA said, “Having previously proposed an October 16, 2020 restart to our competitions, ISSA will use the next eight weeks to re-assess the conditions under which schools will reopen and how they will operate. Subject to this assessment and the suitability of conditions, ISSA through consultations with its membership, will determine the list of competitions to be offered and a new timetable for the resumption of school sports.”

They however went on to say, “We would like to reassure all our stakeholders, that ISSA is cognisant of the role of organized sports in the physical, mental and physco-social development of our teenaged high school population. As such, we are committed to ensuring that at the earliest possible opportunity, we will re-engage our students in our various competitions as we play our part in bringing back some sense of normalcy to their wholesome development.”