Officials are putting on a brave face as the worst weather for 30 years continues to devastate the local football scene.

Only a handful of matches were played last weekend and the forecast looks even bleaker for Saturday and Sunday.

A total wipe-out of fixtures is expected, leaving local leagues with the only option of hoping the situation improves before the backlog gets too big.

David Jamieson, chairman of the Leicestershire & Rutland County FA, said: "This is the worst it has been for many years, we're just trying to work our way through it.

"I've been involved with local football for 38 years and only once can I think of a time when we had similar situation. That was in late 1970s and we didn't play for six weeks.

"Hopefully it won't come to that this time, but it is highly unlikely any games will be played this weekend. We might have to consider a blanket call-off rather than leave it to individuals to decide."

Jamieson, who is also chairman of the Leicestershire Senior League and the East Midlands Counties League, added: "There are County competitions this weekend and, if they're not played, it creates massive problems for the leagues.

"There is a strong possibility the season will have to be extended due to the fixture backlog."

The cold snap has not only impacted on the players, but also the many hundreds of volunteers involved in local football.

Laurence Jones, chief executive of the County FA, acknowledged their efforts and said: "People have to realise that without all those league and club volunteers local football would not survive.

"A prolonged cold snap like this puts huge pressure on them. They work very hard to organise leagues and matches and, when you get a period like this, it has even more of an impact on their time.

"If matches don't take place, they have to be re-arranged and, in conditions like this, often re-arranged again. It's a never-ending circle."

Jones does not expect there to be much action this weekend.

He said: "The odds are remote, pitches are frozen solid.

"We are hoping to return a week on Saturday but even that could be in doubt looking at the long-range forecast. Then the problem is that, when it does thaw, you have waterlogged pitches.

"Towards end of season, the fixture backlog means more games will have to be played during midweek, and there may be a possibility that we have to extend the season, but we're not thinking about that just yet."

The Alliance League are hoping games played before the season kicked off will help stave off a big backlog.

All but four matches were called off last Sunday and assistant secretary Dennis Roe said: "We're not looking good for this weekend but, provided the weather improves after that, we should be okay. We played some games before the season started so they are safely in the bag.

"It's the clubs who are doing well in the cups that will be hardest hit."

Leicester City League secretary Gerry Cooper is more optimistic.

He said: "We're just marking time until the weather picks up. I've been secretary for a long time and have seen this sort of thing before.

"We coped with it then and will do so again. It's not a big issue as yet and as soon as the weather picks up we'll make alternative arrangements to cope with whatever fixture backlog we have."

Local rugby clubs are also facing a fixtures dilemma.

Although a couple of matches took place last weekend, the majority of clubs have not played for two weeks.

Henri Ginvert, competitions organiser for the Leicestershire Leagues, said: "We're not quite at a nightmare stage yet, but things are proving to be increasingly problematic.

"There is added pressure this season because we have gone from 12 to 14-club leagues, meaning there are more matches to be played.

"We've lost the last two weekends and we're going to lose this one too, and there are very few spare weekends in the season to catch up.

"I think we've got one, maybe two, spare weekends in February, and then the next one is in April. That means we may have to play some midweek evening matches towards the end of the season.

"We've had bad seasons like this before, but the extra matches are proving the real problem. All we can do is see what happens."