Team sports of up to 30 people can be played only at approved facilities, rule of 5 still applies elsewhere: SportSG

SINGAPORE — Large team sports that involve up to 30 fully vaccinated players will be allowed from Tuesday (March 15) onwards at sports facilities operated by ActiveSG and People's Association (PA), or private facilities that have been approved by Sport Singapore (SportSG).

However, group sizes will remain capped at five for sports played outside these facilities, with no intermingling allowed between groups, SportSG said in an advisory released on Sunday (March 13).

Providing more details on the streamlined measures for sports that was first announced last month, SportSG said that private operators who wish to obtain approval to host large team sports can register their interest at the SportSG website by Wednesday.

This will allow up to 30 vaccinated persons, including players, coaches and umpires, to play a team sport together at approved venues.

SportSG did not provide a list of approved facilities in its advisory, but said that more details on slots available for booking at ActiveSG and PA facilities will be available on the respective websites from Monday.

For example, a full football match between two teams of 11 can take place as long as the total number of participants, including coaches, referees and substitutes do not exceed 30, are all fully vaccinated, and that the match occurs within an approved facility.

However, the large group will only be allowed within the duration of the match or game. This means that once the game ends, players cannot mingle in groups of more than five and players must keep 1m away from other groups.

"The prevailing safe management measures, such as wearing of masks and safe distancing, will apply before and after the sporting activity, and during rest breaks," said SportSG.

"Any participants not playing during the game will have to be masked and observe a 1m safe distancing from unmasked players on the court or field... There should be no mingling before and after the game between groups of up to five individuals." 

The number of players who can be admitted into the premises and onto each court or field will also depend on the venue capacity and safe-distancing considerations, SportSG added.

5 PER GROUP RULE STILL IN FORCE

However, outside of these pre-approved facilities, such as in public spaces or unsupervised street courts, safe distancing and five-person group size limits will still be required for all unmasked indoor and outdoor settings, the advisory said.

There can also be up to 30 unmasked participants for indoor sports activities such as classes, including the instructors, if participants are fully vaccinated and keep to five per group, with at least 1m distancing between them.

These activities do not require approval from SportSG, but they must be held in indoor facilities with vaccination differentiated measures.

For outdoor activities, there can be multiple groups of up to five per group, with up to 50 people in the class, including the instructor, and with 1m safe distancing between the groups, the advisory said.

For mask-on settings, the class size limits will be lifted regardless of whether it takes place outdoors or indoors, and subject to the venue's capacity requirements. However, group sizes within the classes will remain capped at five. 

For unvaccinated children under 12, whether in the indoor mask-on or mask-off setting, only one group of five is allowed to take part in these activities, but they need not be from the same household, SportSG said.