Basketball Ireland has announced the closure of its international season for 2020.
It means the 10 international programmes at U16, U17, U18, U20 and Senior for Men and Women have seen their seasons prematurely ended, with the different squads at various stages in their preparations for 2020 Summer tournaments when the sport suspended its on-court activities in mid-March.
"This has been a very difficult decision for us to make however, given the current pandemic the health and well-being of our players and all involved is paramount to us and we will now look forward to planning for next year," chairperson of the Elite Performance Committee (EPC) of Basketball Ireland Sinéad Gordon said.
"The EPC will work closely with Basketball Ireland on how we will get our National Teams back on the court and training together again. Social distancing is something that is likely to stay with us and how we incorporate this into team sports is a challenge for everyone."
Despite FIBA announcing the cancellation of all their European Championships for 2020 last month, there was still expectation that some international friendly competition could be arranged for Irish squads in the last quarter of 2020.
However, on the back of the Government Roadmap and having consulted with the head coaches and with the FIBA International Department, this now looks very unlikely and the decision has been taken to conclude all the 2020 programmes and begin planning for international activity in 2021.
