All Sussex Youth County Football cups have been postponed until next year.

The exceptional heavy rainfall of the last few months has caused a huge fixtures pile up.

The news comes as a bombshell to clubs. It is the first time such drastic action has been needed since the start of the Second World War.

Ken Benham, chief executive of the Sussex Football Association, said: "All youth cups have been postponed until further notice and their continuation will be reviewed in mid-February of 2001.

"The bad weather has had an extraordinary effect on football. To think that it was the life and death matter of a world war that last brought such havoc to football shows how serious this rainfall has been."

Benham is hopeful cup competitions will start again at the beginning of March, although the league programme will take precedence.

Benham knows the situation is frustrating.

He said: "I understand that particularly the under-12s and under 13s will be bitterly disappointed by any cancellations as I know they get excited about the cups."

For sides like John Lawson's Arundel Devils girls team, the season has been a farce with barely a game played.

Lawson said: "We travelled 60 miles to Hastings recently but not only was the grass pitch waterlogged, but the Astro-turf adjacent to the pitch was also unplayable due to the rain."

Some of the Sussex leagues are holding emergency meeting with managers to put forward the idea to scrap the games played in 2000, and play a "mini-league" starting in January 2001.

Teams would play each other only once in the new league format.