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Tag: AFF

  • Game Over, Winston

    Game Over, Winston

    IN BETWEEN nasi ambeng and satay on Thursday evening, representatives of National Football League clubs explored a proposal to set up a café to raise money for their teams. The 24  sides playing in two divisions of the NFL are running on annual budgets of between $6,000 and $16,000.

    The higher figure belongs to Jungfrau Punggol FC, but it is an exception because the team owner is Salman Abdullah, who happens to run Padi@Bussorah’s restaurant. In reality, the average budget for the 24 amateur teams is about $8,000. They are struggling, which is unforgivable, and an embarrassment to the Football Association of Singapore.

    Why so?

    Well, because while the teams’ representatives were cracking their heads on how to generate revenue to keep their sides playing in the NFL, Commercial Affairs Department officers were in the midst of raiding the FAS offices.

    At the heart of the CAD investigation is a $500,000 cheque that Tiong Bahru Football Club chairman Bill Ng wrote to the FAS, who then donated the money to the ASEAN Football Federation. What it is for is immaterial, but details have been reported in the media over the last few days.

    What matters, though, is why did the FAS allow half a million dollars to benefit a non-Singapore football organisation when the money could have been used to help struggling local NFL clubs?

    This is a serious dereliction of duty by FAS general secretary Winston Lee, who is Singapore’s top football administrator. He made the unilateral decision to allow the donation to go to the AFF because he contended the FAS Council did not have to be informed about it.

    But the FAS’ constitution defines the Council as the association’s supreme body. Its primary responsibility is to ensure Singapore football is managed with integrity and not fall into disrepute, the kind of which has got Winston and, by extension, the FAS into a tangle.

    The FAS Council hires the general secretary but when it is oblivious to what its employee has been up to, the roof inevitably caves. Should anyone, therefore, be surprise at the sorry state of Singapore football today, especially the S-League? The dramatic slide from top ASEAN team to near minnows began under Winston’s watch, after he assumed his current post in 2008. National youth teams also floundered and flopped.

    But there is a silver lining.

    With the CAD hauling up Winston for questioning, including Bill and two others, his tenure as general secretary is all but over.

    It does not matter whether he is found complicit in any wrongdoing or not, but the new Council, when it is elected on April 29, must release him. Its mandate from voting members is to overhaul Singapore football and reverse the game’s dive and it must stay true to this mission. This means also ridding what other rot that has taken root in the secretariat and filling it with more capable staff.

    Many were hopeful that the election of new office bearers will trigger Winston’s exit and those closely linked to him. But the events of the past week that culminated in the CAD action, which came as a complete shock, are now forcing the issue.

    My only gripe: Why did it take so long for matters to reach this stage for real good to finally come upon Singapore football?

     

    Source: http://iandecotta.com

  • FAS Donation To AFF Raises Many Questions

    FAS Donation To AFF Raises Many Questions

    By: Leong Sze Hian

    I refer to the media reports where Hougang United chairman Bill Ng claimed that he had donated about $850,000 to the FAS since 2012 but was unsure where the money went; as well as to the Football Association of Singapore’s (FAS) rebuttals to the allegations by Mr Ng. The various news reports piqued my interest and I went through the FAS’s annual reports (financial report section) for FY2015 and FY2014, covering the period from 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2015, but could not find any mention of this $500,000 donation to the Asean Football Federation (AFF) in it.

    As this sum of $500,000 is extremely huge, relative to the FAS Group’s (operating) deficit (revenue – expenses) before taxation of $5,445 and $5,453 in FY2015 and FY2014, respectively – instead of just stating that “all donations and sponsorships from our partners are recorded and accounted for”, and that they “are prepared to share the documents relating to this subject with the relevant parties.”  – can the FAS help to clarify where this donation is reflected in their annual report, and make public the documents recording its receipt and subsequent payment and receipt to the AFF.

    This may be a matter of some urgency, given that the elections will be held on 29 April.

    I also refer to FAS general secretary Winston Lee’s comments as reported in the media that Ng “had full knowledge of what the donation was for, and that none of it came to the FAS.” Mr Lee further said that Mr Ng “knew that the money was not being donated to FAS or any Singapore footballing activity, and to claim it was given to FAS is not factual.”

    But the question really is, did the FAS inform the donor in writing that the money was in fact for the AFF?

    Also, since the FAS is an Institution of Public Character (IPC) which means that donations are tax deductible, did the donor get a tax deduction, with full knowledge (according to FAS) that the money was not for local football, but for the AFF? Also, why were the donation(s) channeled “through FAS” to the AFF? Was the $500,000 donation (cheque) paid to the FAS?

    In this regard, questions by the soccer fraternity and fans about “where the funds of a hugely profitable amateur club were channelled to, and why they did not make moves to invest in local football or join the professional S.League”, is well justified.

    Mr Ng further said in his statement to the press that he believes “that none of the council (members) knew anything about this (donation).” But at the time of writing this article (10 am, 15 April), I do not seem to be able to find any response to this assertion in the various FAS statements.

    FAS subsequently issued a second statement which included a quoted from the AFF on the football management system, where the the AFF spokesman said the football management system will enhance the “capabilities of football associations and clubs, which will then better position them to achieve success in key result areas including but not limited to income generation, information technology, corporate governance, and facilities utilisation, among others.”

    The AFF spokesman in thanking the Singapore NFL club for the $500,000 donation, further said that the system will be launched “within the next nine to 12 months”. But, is taking more than three years or four years to develop a “football management system” arguably, kind of long?

    And also, should not the AFF thank the FAS and not the Singapore NFL for the donation since the donation went to AFF via FAS? Was the donation paid to the AFF by the FAS or directly to the AFF by Tiong Bahru FC?

     

    Source: www.theindependent.sg

  • Malaysia Considers Boycott Of AFF Suzuki Cup Over Myanmar’s Violence On Rohingyas

    Malaysia Considers Boycott Of AFF Suzuki Cup Over Myanmar’s Violence On Rohingyas

    KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 23 ― Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin confirmed he has lobbied for Malaysian football team to boycott this year’s Asean Football Federation’s (AFF) Suzuki Cup due to co-host Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya Muslim minority.

    Khairy said he has brought up the issue in the Cabinet meeting last week, and will continue doing so in the same meeting this week.

    “I raised this issue in Cabinet last week. Will do so again this week and stand guided by decision,” Khairy said on his Twitter account today.

    Khairy’s remark came after Perlis mufti Datuk Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin became the latest to urge the boycott by the Harimau Malaysia team, four days after the regional tournament started on Saturday.

    Malaysia won its first game against Cambodia 3-2 on Sunday, and currently leads Group B in the Cup that also includes Vietnam and host Myanmar.

    Matches involving Group A are held in the Philippines instead, with the co-host facing Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia.

    “What is the meaning of sports without humanity? More than that, it is an extreme cruelty against one of mankind’s ethnic group and they are Muslims.

    “We really hope for the government’s strictness in this matter,” Asri said on his official Facebook page last night.

    Asri said the boycott is needed to protest the purported cruelty and tyranny of the Myanmar government against the Rohingyas, including the murder of children, rape, burning them alive and other alleged crimes against humanity.

    Violence has recently escalated in the Rakhine state, with Myanmar’s six-month-old government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi blaming insurgency by Islamist militants for military attacks which has killed at least 26 people.

    The 1.1 million Rohingya living in Rakhine state face discrimination, severe restrictions on their movements and access to services, especially since inter-communal violence in 2012 that displaced 125,000 people.

    The Rohingya are not among the 135 ethnic groups officially recognised in Myanmar, where many in the Buddhist majority regard them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh

     

    Source: www.themalaymailonline.com

  • Young Lions Lose 2-0 To Timor Leste In AFF U19 Championship

    Young Lions Lose 2-0 To Timor Leste In AFF U19 Championship

    Our Young Lions faced off against a physically imposing Timor Leste side in tonight’s final AFF U19 Championship group stage match, and were outmuscled with the Timorese scoring a goal in each half to triumph 2-0.

    FT score: Singapore U19s 0-2 Timor Leste U19s
    (Pufino Welter Garma 5′, Jose Maria Dos Reis Dias Oliveira 89′)

     

    Source: Football Association of Singapore

  • Safuwan Baharudin: Everyone Involved Should Shoulder Blame For Lions’ Suzuki Cup Exit

    Safuwan Baharudin: Everyone Involved Should Shoulder Blame For Lions’ Suzuki Cup Exit

    By his own admission, it was not a good 2014 ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup outing for Safuwan Baharudin.

    Two years ago, he and fellow Lion Baihakki Khaizan were feted as the region’s top central defensive pairing in Singapore’s winning campaign.

    But after their exit on Saturday from the group stage of this year’s competition, the team, their coach and the Football Association of Singapore are bearing the brunt of criticism from the football fraternity and fans who had expected more from the defending champions.

    While media reports have cited disharmony in the squad and dissatisfaction with head coach Bernd Stange as reasons for the poor showing, Safuwan would not be drawn to adding more fuel to the fire.

    Instead, the 23-year-old told TODAY: “(The blame for) Singapore’s exit from the Suzuki Cup has to be shouldered by everyone in the team and not just coach Bernd Stange. We cannot push all the blame on him. Every member of the team has to share the responsibility, Stange included.

    “But he is only the coach; he decides the line-up and the tactical formation, but at the end of the day, what the players do on the field decides the outcome of the game.

    “In short, all of us are in it together. Sink or swim.”

    Calling it a nightmare outing for the Lions, Safuwan said losses to Thailand and Malaysia showed that the team still had plenty to learn.

    “Especially in our attacking part of the game, we did not score a single goal from open play, apart from Khairul Amri’s header against Thailand,” he pointed out. “The other goals came from set pieces: Free-kicks and corner kicks.

    “We lacked creativity up front. We didn’t have someone brave and confident enough to take on opposing defenders in the 18-yard box and do the damage.”

    Until the free-kick he took, which resulted in Amri equalising against Malaysia, Safuwan’s campaign this year had been teetering on disaster. His handball late in the opener against Thailand led to the visitors’ winning penalty. In the following match, his foul on Myanmar striker Kyaw Ko Ko led to yet another penalty in a poor second half for the Lions that heralded the disaster against Malaysia.

    “I must admit that I had a very quiet tournament, especially in the opening two matches. But I know I had a better game against Malaysia, and I thought I could get better if we had entered the semi-finals,” said Safuwan.

    “The Suzuki Cup is over for us. We have the World Cup qualifiers next year. And while we’re frustrated with the early exit from the Suzuki Cup, maybe we should not dwell on it anymore and move on.”

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com