Netball World Youth Cup cancelled due to Covid-19

The Netball World Youth Cup 2021 (NWYC) which was scheduled to take place from December 2 to December 11, in Suva, Fiji, has been cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Uganda is one of the countries that were supposed to take part in the world cup finals.

The International Netball Federation (INF) said that: "This difficult decision was made by the INF Board during their meeting on March 12, after taking into consideration all the risks related to hosting the event during the on-going Covid-19 pandemic with the safety and wellbeing of participants and the Fijian population at the heart of the decision."
 
According to a press release on Friday, the INF conducted a comprehensive risk assessment, which highlighted several challenges including the welfare of youth athletes; the inability of teams to adequately plan and prepare together for an intense level of international competition, on-going border closures, travel restrictions including quarantine measures and costs, and the protection of Fiji, a nation which has seen low Covid-19 numbers as of March 2021.
 
INF President, Liz Nicholl CBE, said “It is with a heavy heart that we make this decision to cancel the Netball World Youth Cup 2021. Our U21 athletes represent the emerging talent at an international level, and we recognise this announcement will be a significant disappointment for them, for our Members, our fans and indeed for all the netball family. We thank the organising committee for their considerable efforts thus far in planning for the event and for the ongoing support of the Fijian Government in relation to hosting.”
  
The NWYC is the pinnacle of netball competition for emerging players under 21 years of age with INF hosting a U21 International competition every four years since 1988. 

INF announced on February 08, 2017, that Netball Fiji had won the rights to host the second staging of the Netball World Youth Cup. 

In July 2020 INF announced that due to the on-going Covid-19 pandemic, the NWYC would be postponed from June to December 2021.

Over 20 million people play netball around the world, in more than 80 countries. 

Currently, 76 National Netball Associations are affiliated to the INF, grouped into five Regions - Africa, Asia, Americas, Europe, and Oceania - each with a respective Regional Federation.
 
20 teams with players aged under 21 were to compete for the NWYC title. 

The host country (Fiji) and the top four teams from the NWYC2017 held in Botswana pre-qualified (New Zealand, Australia, England, and Jamaica who finished 5th behind Fiji). 

The Asia qualifying event took place in July 2019 with Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka qualifying.
 
The INF Board decided in June 2020 to determine the remaining 12 qualifying countries based on INF World Rankings.
 
The qualifiers for the Netball World Youth Cup 2021 in alphabetical order are: Australia, Barbados, Cook Islands, England, Fiji, Jamaica, Malaysia, Malawi, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Samoa, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, St Lucia, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, and Wales.