THE flooding that has disrupted local football over the last few weeks is set to cause chaos with fixtures later in the season.

Players who turn out for both Saturday and Sunday league teams could find themselves obliged to play up to six matches a week to sort out the backlog.

The havoc wrought by the heavy rain, which has seen more than 60 games called off in the Honda Logistics Swindon Sunday League alone, is further complicated by last month's fuel crisis, when a full weekend's programme was lost.

League officials are not panicking just yet, but they are worried that if the situation carries on much longer, then teams will struggle to play all their games.

Stuart Morgan, honorary general secretary of the Saturday-based Swindon and District League, said: "Pitches are so waterlogged that if there is any more rain, it just sits on top of them.

"The council has been calling off games on its pitches as early as Wednesday and Thursday."

Mr Morgan cannot remember a worse backlog so early in the season.

"We've had problems before," he said. "But not to the extent where you can't see the end of it. Even if we start playing again next weekend, there are still going to be problems.

"The only time we can play midweek games is in April, after the clocks go back. It could happen that teams have to play twice in midweek, and it's hard for people who work shifts.

"If players play for two teams, on Saturday and Sunday, you could get a situation where they have to play every night of the week.

"They might get just Friday night off, so there could be a few marriages ending."

Mr Morgan is desperate for a good winter, with no snow.

He said: "Otherwise, we are in for a torrid time. But I am not panicking just yet. It's the same for every league in the country.

"I'd be more concerned if I was running the York and District League."

The job for fixtures secretaries in the Sunday League and the Swindon and District League is made more difficult by the County Cup, which takes precedence over other games.

Sunday League fixtures secretary Ivor Cottrell said: "There were only four league games played at the weekend out of 25 scheduled. Two thirds were postponed because of the weather and the rest were because of the County Cup.

"The season is supposed to finish in mid-March, but we are already 60 games behind schedule, so it will probably go on until mid-April.

"A lot of wives and girlfriends will not be happy."