The Waterford FC Under 19 dream of playing in Europe is no more following a joint statement from the club and the FAI earlier today.
"It is our foremost regret to have to make this decision, especially for our young players," said Waterford Operations Manager Tony Burke.
The current level five restrictions only allow for elite sports to be played - and unfortunately for the Waterford FC players, youth teams are not included in the elite ranks, regardless if they are to play in Europe or not.
Waterford FC academy head Mike Geoghegan said that it was unfortunate for the players, but the guidelines are there to keep people safe.
"It's a government ruling, the sporting organisations have to row in and work with the government on this one."
"Its unprecedented."
"There' no point in us throwing our toys out of the pram and screaming about unfairness or that we should be classified as elite."
"The rules are quite clear from the government. The FAI has to work within those guidelines and we have to work within the FAI guidelines."
"We're disappointed, but were not blaming anyone for this. This is just unfortunate circumstances"
Despite having spent so much time in the past weeks petitioning the government, representatives of the club and the FAI were unable to find a route by which the game could go ahead according to Geoghegan.
"They've been making representations to the government to see could our U19's be given an exception to come back and train so we could pull a squad together and have them prepared for a European tie".
"There's been no give, but in fairness its been a difficult time for government and for sporting associations"
"Up to this week, those negotiations have been going on, but we've been told that under no circumstances can we resume training"
The game with Hammarby was due to be played on March 2nd - with the club making efforts through UEFA to try and move the fixture back to a time when the club were able to resume training. UEFA were only able to offer one week extension as per their fixture calendar.
With the current lockdown lockdown to be in place until March 5th, the extension offered by European bosses would not have been enough to facilitate the preparations the club needed.
You can hear more from Mike here
https://open.spotify.com/episode/14BrvIyVJitVD2qP7pVilQ?si=vfbHWQcURgi_iAvPUmotqA
