The U.S. Youth Soccer National League events scheduled for December have been canceled, the organization announced on Monday.

From the announcement:

"Given the increasing number of COVID cases, and with the health of our soccer community in mind, the US Youth Soccer National League is postponing both the North Carolina (Dec. 4-7) and Tampa (Dec. 27-30) events.

This postponement includes both the Showcase Series and Playoff competitions for each of the December events. New dates and locations for the rescheduled events are being determined and will be announced at a future time.

With the health and safety of all participants as our top priority, we believe it is not in the best interest of the teams and families to travel at this time. That fact has become evident through the growing number of teams that have been forced to pull out of the events due to cases within their club, travel restrictions put in place by their local and state officials, or similar reasons.

Additionally, the number of teams that have been forced to remove themselves in the recent days has made it difficult for the events to reach the competitive standard that is typical of a National League event."

Image Credit: US Youth Soccer