THIS season's Welsh Cup competition has been scrapped, the Football Association of Wales has had to concede.

The Wales National Cup Board has announced that it has cancelled this season's competition, after the ongoing Covid crisis made it impossible to make the competition viable.

The 2019-20 national tournament was also cancelled, ahead of last year's semi-finals, because of the pandemic.

It means that the third-placed team in the Cymru Premier will now play in next season's Uefa Europa Conference League.

The FAW Women's Cup and FAW Futsal Cup competitions have also been cancelled for this season, but the FAW Girls' Cup can go ahead.

"The decision to cancel the competition was made as the ongoing public health crisis has made it impossible to make the JD Welsh Cup viable," read an FAW statement.

"Currently, whilst the country remains at Alert Level 4, only clubs with an ‘Elite Status’ designation are permitted to play under the Welsh Government Coronavirus Control Plan.

"As previously stated, following discussions and lobbying by the FAW, the Welsh Government have made revisions to the number of people who can gather indoors and outdoors at Alert Level 2 of their Coronavirus Control Plan.

"The 30 people outdoors and 15 people indoors limits have been lifted to 50 and 30 respectively.

"This is a significant development for the return of senior competitions, and the FAW is currently reviewing the impact of this change on its roadmap for the return of football.

"UEFA confirmed to the FAW in writing on 29 March that, taking into account the exceptional circumstances due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UEFA Executive Committee approved that if it would not be possible to determine a domestic cup winner on sporting merit.

"The highest ranking non-qualified domestic championship club will therefore qualify automatically for the 2021/22 UEFA club competitions.

"As such, the 3rd placed team in the JD Cymru Premier League will automatically qualify for the new UEFA Europa Conference League qualifying round and teams in 4th to 7th will compete in the play-offs for the remaining UEFA Europa Conference League position, all subject to receiving a UEFA Club Licence. "

The NCB also decided to cancel the FAW Women’s Cup and FAW Futsal Cup competitions.

Meanwhile, the FAW Girls’ Cup can go ahead as supervised children’s activity is now permitted. Therefore, the first round will take place on 11 April.