The highly-anticipated A-League clash between leaders Central Coast Mariners and Sydney FC has been postponed due to a waterlogged pitch at Bluetongue Stadium, with the match now likely to be played on Friday, December 21.

Mariners executive chairman Lyall Gorman said a season-record crowd of 14,000 or 15,000 was expected and all the tickets would be valid for the rescheduled match but were non-refundable.

Referee Matthew Breeze consulted both clubs, stadium management and Football Federation Australia officials before calling the match off shortly before the scheduled 7pm AEDT kick-off.

He inspected the pitch three times between 5pm and 6.30pm but deemed the large amount of standing water on the field made conditions too dangerous for the match to commence.

It was the first ever postponement of an A-League match and it came after 120 millilitres of rainfall over six hours in Gosford.

Gorman said player safety, the inability to mark the lines and presenting the A-League in its "right light" made the decision an easy one.

For those travelling an hour and a half from Sydney, the lateness of the decision was not ideal, but Gorman said a decision could not have been made any earlier.

"We discussed this at midday Saturday and we called off the (pre-match) charity game at 12.30pm," said Gorman.

"Our first obligation is to put the game on if we can ... and actually try and make the game happen.

"What really killed us is that we left the game on at 5pm but just after 5pm it bucketed down again and that was the destroyer."

The FFA will announce a rescheduled date early next week, but Gorman said December 21 was the most likely evening because no A-League matches were scheduled for that weekend.

"It'll be a discussion between the FFA and the two clubs involved but my gut feeling of a possible date is Friday the 21st of December - that weekend which was free," said Gorman.

"Clearly it'll be harder to put it on the Saturday or Sunday (December 22 or 23) around Christmas but I'd say we'll probably shoot for that (December 21) if the venue's right and the two clubs are right.

"You'd have to guess a time around Fox (Sports), but probably a seven o'clock kick-off that Friday night."

Mariners players Sasho Petrovski and John Hutchinson were both suspended for the match but they will now miss next weekend's trip to Queensland Roar.

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