Shannon Burgess, the Bermuda Football Association Competitions Committee chairman, admits finishing an FA Cup semi-final after midnight was not ideal, but says finding suitable dates next season could be “more of a challenge” with the Concacaf Nations League.

Burgess was at Somerset Cricket Club on Tuesday to watch both semi-finals head to extra time and then penalties. By the time the two finalists were determined it was past midnight.

The second semi-final was delayed a few more minutes while officials tied the netting at the southern goal.

“You always run that risk because on occasion we have to schedule double-headers for cup competitions,” Burgess said. “To have the first game and the second game go into extra time and penalties is rare, but it is possible.

“We constantly look at the scheduling and the challenges we have with scheduling. Ten years ago we didn’t have the international windows, now we have a national team that’s more active and we try to create space within the schedule so that teams don’t have to play matches without their key players.

“We’re seeing some positive things in the national side of the scenario. Now we have to balance it with what we want to see on the domestic side of the schedule.

“Ideally for the FA Cup semi-finals we would prefer to play on a Sunday afternoon and perhaps one match per day, but with the international breaks that we have to embed into the schedule, that’s becoming almost impossible.”

Burgess added: “Next season will become even more of a challenge because we will have the Concacaf Nations League and we’ll have more international windows within our schedule.

“Playing these FA Cup semi-finals at night will probably become the norm unless we come up with something creative with the schedule.

“Perhaps we can play one match per night to avoid that possibility but with that we have to factor in rain dates as well. “We’re going to try to be creative with it and see what we can do to avoid a repeat.”

Burgess, a former Devonshire Colts captain, can remember when the semi-finals were played on separate dates, something which last happened in 2012 when a match between Robin Hood and North Village was played on a Saturday night, followed by the second semi-final the following day between Dandy Town and Wolves. Town went on to beat Village in the final.

Burgess pointed out that lack of available dates meant that the semi-finals had to produce winners on the night, which meant extra time, penalty kicks and a late finish. Tuesday’s second semi-final started almost an hour late.

“You also had issues with the net which caused a slight delay in between [the matches],” Burgess said.

“It was definitely an inconvenience; I didn’t want to be there myself that late, with people having to go to work or school the next day. I left Somerset close to 1am.

“To kick off the first match before 7pm wouldn’t have been possible because people are just getting off from work. The only alternative would be next year not to have a double-header.”

The BFA also tries to work with the Bermuda Cricket Board whose season is starting earlier this year, in late April. Football will end on April 8 with the FA Cup final at the National Stadium.

“We can’t really extend the season because we have cricket and fields need to be released for cricket,” Burgess said. “It’s not like we can add more weeks to the schedule.

“We’re going to try to see if we can come up with something creative.”