Football is Singapore's most popular sport.

But you might not be able to tell from these pictures.

Granted, these pictures were taken on a Friday afternoon, so massive crowds should not have been expected. But the emptiness is quite a steep falloff from how it used to be.

Why is it so bad?

The safe distancing rules right now for sports, including football, is that no more than five people are allowed on the court.

Which severely hampers the mathematical possibilities for a game of football.

It isn't impossible to play football with five people of course. Maybe a three against two? With the team with two player's goalkeeper being allowed to play outfield as well.

A more equitable two against two? With the remaining one as a sub of sorts to prevent the teams from tiring out too quickly.

But for all intents and purposes, five is quite an awkward number to play around with.

In fact here's the first comment that greeted The Cage's Facebook announcement that they were reopening for bookings.

Which brings us to the issue of futsal courts.

The process of booking a futsal court for casuals in pre-Covid times was already rather tedious.

You (you in this case being the poor guy who has to rally up enough people for a game every week) have to send a cursory WhatsApp message trying to figure out how many people are interested.

If you are decent enough friends with the group, issues of money can be handled later, but if not, that's another round of headaches and PayNow accounts to be settled.

And the irony of it all? In pre-Covid times, there's no way that five players would justify booking a court.

The general consensus among amateur weekend futsal players Mothership talked to is that five people playing futsal doesn't really appeal to them:

"How to play football with 5 people?"

How bad is it?

Here's what bookings look like for this recent Sunday (Sep. 27) at Kovan.

Time slots that are not booked are indicated in white. The blocked out timeslots in courts 1, 4, 6, and 7 are due to safety issues, and not overwhelming demand.

Mothership spoke to Amin, the sales manager at Kovan Sports to get a sense of how bad the situation is. When quizzed on how bad the drop in customers have been, he said:

"Uh...maybe 90 per cent to be honest. You actually came on a very rare day that we have a few bookings. Ya, usually, it’s like very quiet."

It's tough to put a definite number on how steep the decline has been, but Amin says that pre-Covid weeknights usually saw the venue completely booked, ditto for weekend mornings.

Security guards Mothership talked to at the futsal court in Tampines Hub also noted the decrease in footfall. They noted a few coming during the weekends, but significantly less traffic during weekdays.

The co-owner of The Cage, perhaps the most famous of the futsal pitches, tells The Straits Times that it is operating at "20 per cent utilisation" and revenue has "fallen by 80 per cent".

He also told ST that "running cost" across all three of their venues is between S$70,000 and S$80,000. This is not including rent.

Amin pointed to the 5 pax rule for the drop in bookings.

"Definitely because the rules say that they are not allowed to have more than 5 players, which is tough when people want to play futsal. Even though once in a while we still get some people who just kick about or do fitness trainings, but it’s not as fun as '5 vs 5' lah. Because that is the essence of futsal isn’t it?"

What now?

The recent easing of regulations hopefully point to a looser set of guidelines regarding sports as well, but right now they still have to survive.

Like most companies significantly handicapped by safety guidelines, futsal courts are also trying to innovate.

To do that, one must figure out the appeal of playing futsal in paid futsal courts without regulations.

Let's take the booking price of a futsal court at the current S$40 an hour, even though it's usually around double that.

So that's eight dollars for each person for an hour of football in a group of five. But if anecdotal experiences of futsal are to be trusted, there is literally no way your average futsal player is going to last all of that one hour.

It's a rather competitive and exhausting sport.

But this changes when you factor a huge number of players into the equation.

Imagine you have around 20 players, playing a 5-minute (or a first to x goals match) and switching with the next team whenever one loses. This, for the most part, gets rid of the issue of fatigue.

A three hour session would then cost an individual player just S$6. So it's very much a win-win.

By severely limiting the number of people allowed, it takes away the impetus for booking a court for too long.

So how are they trying to get around the situation?

For Golazo Football, they appear to be trying to pivot towards a more family-friendly clientele.

This probably helps to tone down the usual ferocity and energy required of a typical Futsal match. ST reported that they have offered up to S$40 booking discounts as well.

The Cage has gone down a different route. Introducing a one-hour workout session...

https://www.facebook.com/thecageSG/photos/a.202223555411/10158057257160412/

And calls for other types of fitness activities at their premises.

And do these work? It remains to be seen of course, but Amin is doubtful.

Kovan Sports Centre itself has engaged in price cuts, and even other promotions like free drinks, but Amin views this as fundamentally missing the crux of the problem.

"We have also tried giving out free drinks etc. but majority of bookers have emphasised the importance of having two-sided games. Promotions will only work to a certain extent to entice those who are itching for a kickabout."

The essence of futsal.

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All images by Syahindah Ishak.