Two more matches in the Great Eastern Yeo's S.League were called off on Friday night because of severe air pollution impacting Singapore.
Geylang International were scheduled to take on Hougang United at Jalan Besar Stadium with Warriors FC due to entertain Albirex Niigata (S) at Choa Chu Kang. But both fixtures saw their 7.30 p.m. kick-offs delayed before eventually being postponed.
In a post on the league's Facebook page, S.League CEO Lim Chin laid out the protocol regarding matches afflicted by the severe haze, based on the Pollutant Standard Index (PSI) released every hour by the National Environment Agency (NEA).
The threshold for games to proceed is set at 150. A reading between 101 to 200 is considered "unhealthy" by the NEA, while 201 to 300 is "very unhealthy" and "hazardous" is above 300.
If the reading exceeds 300 at 5 p.m. on match-days, the games will be postponed. If it is below 300 at 5 p.m., kick-off will be delayed if it exceeds 150 but is below 200 at 7 p.m. and delayed again if it is the same case at 8 p.m. If it still exceeds 150 at 9 p.m., the match will be postponed.
That was the case on Friday night when the hourly readings from 5 p.m. through 9 p.m. were 120, 143, 162, 168 and 154.
"If at anytime the PSI goes past 200 at 7 p.m., 8 p.m. or 9 p.m., we will abandon the game immediately," Lim explained. "In all instances if the match is played, it is to be finished by 11.30 p.m. (the definite cut-off time) or the match will be abandoned.
"We would endeavour to play and finish the match as far as possible... It is not easy for us to make decisions as each ruling and decision will set a precedent and our decisions must be consistent to maintain the integrity of the S.League so as to be fair to all clubs."
This brings the number of league matches affected by the haze to five. The match between Albirex and Tampines Rovers two weeks ago failed to kick off, as did the game between Geylang and Home United last week. They have been rescheduled for October and November.
The third game, between Home and Tampines on Wednesday, was halted at half-time. This made it an "abandoned" match, which means it will be fully replayed starting from 0-0, even though Home were leading 2-1 when the haze intervened.
The haze is caused by smoke from the nearby Indonesian island of Sumatra where huge, often illegal fires clear land for agricultural purposes.
With the hazardous conditions predicted to persist, it is likely that more matches will be affected in the next week or so, with nine domestic games scheduled within just nine days.
Already, rescheduling the aforementioned games will result in a tighter fixture schedule -- particularly for Home United -- as the season is usually targeted to end by November.