Bermuda?s football calendar has again fallen victim to the continued absence of functioning floodlights, leaving both Bermuda Football Association officials and club representatives frustrated over the stop-start nature of the season so far.

BFA general secretary David Sabir last night expressed his ?disappointment? with the forced postponement of both the Friendship Trophy and Shield fixtures which were due to kick off this evening.

The matches featured Hamilton Parish against Southampton Rangers in the Friendship and St.David?s versus PHC in the Shield.

?The situation is obviously very irritating and very difficult,? said Sabir.

?We have spent a considerable amount of time running through the various options but we have had no luck. We were hoping that the lights at either Devonshire Rec or BAA would be available but unfortunately that has not happened. We even checked with the National Stadium but it was too last minute and it was already engaged.?

Sabir went on to say that the BFA were doing ?absolutely everything in their power? to get the season ?up and running properly? and intimated that there had not been an avenue left unexplored by his staff.

?Despite our efforts, we are still not in a position to play any night games, anywhere on the Island, which is obviously a huge inconvenience to everybody,? he continued.

?We are engaging in consistent dialogue with the clubs and we are certainly aware of the challenges that they are facing.?

Sabir blamed the continued delay on the difficulty in acquiring the necessary equipment with which to fix the shattered lights of many clubs.

?At the end of the day, some of the equipment needed to get up high and fix the lights is just not available,? he said.

?Belco, for one, are still engaged in a restoration job throughout Bermuda and bringing in other equipment would be an extremely costly move. We accept that the situation needs to be dealt with as soon as possible and I would like to reassure everybody concerned that we are doing all that we can from our angle.?

One team which has been particularly affected by the logistical difficulties of the new season is Southampton Rangers, who because of tonight?s postponement will have played only seven games between the beginning of the season and the break which begins on December 14.

They are still bitter over the postponement of their league match against Devonshire Colts, scheduled for November 9, which only took place this past weekend, because of a concert at White Hill Field.

?It was an absolutely ridiculous decision to postpone that game and the club that was responsible has not been dealt with in the way it should have been,? said Rangers assistant coach Nick Jones last night.

?It has been incredibly difficult to get any sort of fluidity or momentum going in our season and the Friendship postponement does not help. Can somebody please tell me how we are supposed to prepare and perform when we are playing so few games??

Jones said that he accepted that the BFA could not be blamed for the ?lights situation? but argued that the current fixture list still had its flaws.

?I don?t have a problem with the amount of football, I have a problem with the time over which we play the games and the structure,? he said.

?We should all kick off in September and finish at the end of November and then all break for a month, so everybody gets the same time period off, and then start again in January, February and March. At the moment with Martonmere Cup fixtures, Friendship games and this and that it is far too disjointed and not in any way consistent for all teams.

?I know that it is hard to please everybody and Charles Clarke (Competitions Committee chairman) does an admirable job with the fixtures. But I believe we still need to look at the schedule more closely because it is not as difficult a job as people sometimes try to make it out to be.?