Tag Archives: fas

This is the same Singapore football that has seen no gold medals ever in the SEA Games, where only South East Asian teams take part, or the same Singapore whose own professional league have been won by foreign invited teams in the past four years. Maybe his target should have been for Singapore football to win something first in the local leagues, or the regional Games. That already seems a hard task.

The recent failure of our SEA Games squad to get past the Group stage confirms this - the majority of its players came from the Garena Young Lions. The abject performance is blamed on the lack of physical fitness, tactical awareness, team play and ability to score goals. This is despite year-round exposure to top-level S-League football. It is time to scrap the Young Lions' S-League team.

The newly elected FAS council have given an ultimatum to four inactive S-League clubs that operate jackpot rooms an ultimatum - either return to playing in the S-League, or be de-affiliated and give up their cash machines. This fruit machines issue came under the spotlight in April, when losing presidential candidate, Bill Ng, disclosed the fact that jackpot machines had enabled his club, Tiong Bahru FC to make a huge donation to the AFC. Tiong Bahru FC and Bill Ng are currently under investigations, along with a few others, including ex FAS president, Zainudin Nordin. The four inactive S-League clubs who were still earning money from jackpot machines were named as Tanjong Pagar United, Gombak United, Woodlands and Sinchi FC. FAS have stated that if these clubs are not serious about football but only about generating income via their jackfruit machines, should no longer be able to run jackpot rooms under the umbrella of being professional football clubs. Some of the four sit-out clubs have indicated their willingness to return to the S-League, but are worried about the costs and whether they had the funds to run a professional team.

Funny how all these years of having professional football clubs, supposedly run like a business, and running jackpot machines at their clubhouse as a surefire way to make more money, yet they always complain of lack of funds. In fact, based on the Tiong Bahru saga, it seemed that they made $36.8million out of the jackpot machines! Their revenue higher than the FAS budget of last year. Even after subtracting all the taxes and money being put back in jackpot winnings, the income still amounted to $5m. And all these while, these S.League clubs are complaining about having a tight budget! The money is right there under their noses. Just that they were not channeled back into football. So, whatever happened to the income generated? And only now FAS realised they should channel jackpot earnings back to the football? Professional run clubs and association, they are not.

We know that our country's FIFA soccer ranking has been declining ever since the PAP gov installed a PAP minister to lead our soccer governing body FAS. Despite having history as our lesson, we continue to be nonchalant about it. Today, FAS is in shambles. Our local soccer is unattractive. It is nowhere near our previous high when we were a part of Malaysia Cup. FAS spends a meagre $70k on community football but pay its key officials a staggering $1.6 million in salaries. Just how the hell did it happen? The FAS council and committee members should be held responsible over the decline of Singapore soccer today. No one cared for its development despite records showing its decline. Everyone happily collecting hefty pay-check months after months. I don't even wanna talk about Zainudin Nordin. He's a wash out. I'm holding all the council and committee members responsible for the state that we are in today.

Whoever wins this election, it will be a hollow victory. After the accusations and counter accusations, which finally led to the CAD taking further actions in the donations saga, as well as revealing whata farce the FAS is in, as they have no control over the football clubs they are supposed to oversee. And now, another promise from the Team LTK, who indicated that they will listen to their affiliates and make changes for the better of Singapore football. They are also a joke. A team made up of mostly Council members of the FAS, they don't even know what is happening in the association. Council members in name only, then? These so-called football administrators have never listened to the ground before, what makes them think they can change? Another election tactics of promising everything good, but reverting to type once elected? They had managed to let the professional league turn from a big national project to a professional league that one hardly ever watch. And Singaporeans favourite sport is football. If you don't even want to watch your favourite sport live with easy access to stadiums, then that is total gross mismanagement of the sports.

It has now transpired that the four people heavily involved in the FAS donation saga are all out on police bail. The four are Bill Ng, the person who first disclosed the donation figure of $500,000, his wife, who was listed as the owner of the property the Tiong Bahru FC jackpot machines are operated at, former FAS president and former MP Zainudin Nordin, and current FAS general secretary, Winston Lee. All four were previously quoted as being individuals who were helping in the CAD investigations. It is understood that the bail amount differs for all the individuals, with only Bill Ng's amount of $100,000 disclosed. Being on bail means the four are no longer merely helping in the investigations, right?

This team is Team LTK, whose members are made up of the outgoing FAS Council. If the members of the Council have no idea what the money was for, then what are they doing in the Council in the first place? Sit there and earn the money as Council members? The other team contesting the elections is headed by the man who made the claims and donation of the $500,000. And the outgoing FAS president and his deputy keep saying they are also not to blame for the uncertainty of the donation money. If the geoverning body of football in Singapore cannot get their act together, is it any wonder then that Singapore football are down in the doldrums?

I refer to the article ‘How did Tiong Bahru FC get so much money?‘ (Sunday Times, Apr 23). It states that “In documents obtained by The Sunday Times, the club’s annual revenue for the year ending March 31 last year was $36.8 million, more than the Football Association of Singapore’s (FAS) budget of $35.8 million in the same period. Around $31 million was paid back in jackpot winnings and taxes.

The recent FAS saga have shown one thing, that nobody actually cares for the football in Singapore. It's all about the money and power, and that's why our local football will never go far. Forget about reaching the standards of the Japanese league, our own S-League could not even match up to Indonesia's, and they had their league suspended by FIFA for one whole year last year! But out of this saga, we now have the surprising news that the Tiong Bahru Football Club had actually amassed a revenue of $36.8m last year!The FAS own budget for the whole of last year was $35.8m. And it was not only last year that Tiong Bahru FC had amassed millions via their jackpot machines. They had made between $11m - $36m in the years since 2011. They are a far richer club than the FAS and the professional S-League clubs!