The move comes after the XFL was forced to cancel its first season after just five games due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The United States now has more COVID-19 cases than any other country and in excess of 18,000 deaths.

When the XFL season was cancelled, organisers insisted they were committed to staging a full season in 2021, but this no longer appears to be the case.

There have been widespread reports in the US that the league now has no plans to return in 2021, with employees told on a conference call yesterday that they were being let go.

Players were told they would be paid until the end of the regular season - which was scheduled to be this weekend - when the season was first cancelled.

There has been no official comment from the XFL itself.

The original XFL also only ran for one season, folding in 2001.

There has long been a belief that there is a market for an alternative American football competition to thrive after the National Football League (NFL) and college football seasons have finished, but this is the second time in two years that a rival league has come to a premature end.

Another alternative to the NFL, the Alliance of American Football, played its first season in 2019 but that was also suspended mid-campaign, with the league ultimately filing for bankruptcy.

While there are few winners in this situation, some players have at least been able to use the XFL as springboard from which to earn NFL contracts.