Junior football in the north and north-east is set restart next month.
The North Region Junior Football Association (NRJFA) are aiming to begin the 2020-21 season on Saturday November 21.
The plan is for the campaign to kick-off with eight regionalised League Cup groups before four regionalised leagues begin in the new year, with the top two in each league going forward into play-offs to crown a champion.
Just three clubs – Montrose Roselea, Spey Valley United and Buckie Rovers – have opted out of competing in the one-off structure.
NRJFA secretary Richard Easton said: “People seem to want to get back to playing football and get back to a little bit of normality.
“They’re playing friendlies just now and the players are probably getting bored of that and want to start playing competitively, so we’ve come up with something that will hopefully allow them to do that this season and once we get to August next year hopefully we can get back to a bit of normality.
“The clubs need something to play for, they need to have something to aim for.
“If the SFA allow an entrant from the North Region into the Scottish Cup next season, we can put forward the winner.
“There won’t be any promotion or relegation, it’s not going to affect the leagues at all in terms of the league set-up when last season was finished back in March.
“It will hopefully just be a one-off temporary season that we’ve put into place to cover this period.”
Like the rest of the football pyramid Junior football will likely have to start new season behind closed doors.
Easton says not having supporters coming through the gate and also the opportunity to host hospitality will have an impact on clubs.”
He added: “It’s not necessarily the crowds that Junior clubs are missing, gate money does make a difference.
“But they’re missing the chance to sell hospitality packages, sweepstakes, raffle tickets and even money generated from sales of pies and cups of tea.
“And clubs still have costs to meet. Clubs sell a lot of hospitality packages and hold dinners to make money and they can’t do that.”
The Juniors are still awaiting ratification about starting the season on November 21.
Easton said: “It may be dependent on what tier the north and north-east is put into.
“But we can’t see it being a problem because they haven’t stopped us playing football up to now and we’ve limited the travel as best we can.”
Meanwhile, the NRJFA are on the hunt for a new secretary with Easton stepping down after nine years in the post.
Any interested parties can contact association president David Cadenhead via email at Dcadenhead48@gmail.com