The Big Read: Team sports have not fully resumed amid Omicron surge and Singapore is all the poorer for it

SINGAPORE: Football enthusiast Hatta Aziz used to play futsal with his friends regularly, which helped him to unwind after a long day.

Then COVID-19 struck in early 2020, forcing football and many other team sports into an indefinite time-out, as various restrictions to tame the pandemic, such as group size limitations and safe distancing, were imposed.

While the 35-year-old digital marketing consultant used to play futsal with his friends about two to three times a week, he has for the past two years been largely able to do only drills and workouts during football training sessions.

It was only in November last year - following the implementation of a pilot scheme allowing five-on-five gameplay for certain sports in some facilities - that Mr Hatta has been able to play a full futsal game with his friends. Even then, he has managed to do so only on a handful of occasions over the past months, given the limited number of booking slots for the facilities. 

The training sessions and occasional games have helped Mr Hatta, who runs a football boots review website, to keep fit and remain engaged in the sport. But he still misses the close bonds he had forged playing regular football games with his friends.

“At the end of the day, we work very hard, and I think (football) is a stress reliever. There is the camaraderie with friends, even if you have a bad game, you can still talk nonsense and joke with them,” he said. “Once you lose those routines, it can be quite jarring.”

While having to miss out on their usual weekend games can be frustrating for adults, the pandemic-forced disruption to team sports can be much harder for children who are more physically active, especially for those whose daily routines once revolved around such