Tag: Singaporeans

Local Teen Footballer Marc Embarks On England Stint

He first came to prominence as one of the stars of the 2014 Gothia Cup — regarded as the world’s largest youth tournament — as he helped Singapore’s F-17 academy achieve a third-place finish out of 120 teams in the Under-11 category.

And last November, Marc Ryan Tan, the son of Singapore’s Malaysia Cup hero Steven Tan, made his mark again during a local training camp conducted by West Ham’s academy coaches.

The 14-year-old made such a positive impression on the visiting coaches that he was invited to train with the English Premier League outfit’s academy in London this week.

The West Ham academy, which has produced players such as Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick and Frank Lampard, has been given a Category One status under the Premier League’s Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP), which puts them among the top 20 academies in England.

While in England, Marc will also train at three other English academies – Wolverhampton Wanderers (Category One), Stoke City (Category One) and Charlton Athletic (Category Two) – during the 10-day training tour, which is organised by United States-based sports management company Global Image Sports (GIS).

The teenager, who can play as a forward or on the wings, is the only local player out of four others from the F-17 academy who was shortlisted for this tour.

Speaking to TODAY ahead of the training tour, Marc said that he hopes to use this opportunity to improve himself as a player.

In addition, he hopes to impress the coaches, and any watching scouts, as he works towards his dream of earning a professional contract with a top European team in future.

“I want to go there to learn how the English kids play because I’ve never played with the European kids before,” said the Secondary 2 student at the Singapore Sports School (SSP). “It’ll be interesting to see their style of play, observe how they train and find out why they’re so good at football.

“Hopefully I can go there, improve myself and bring something back with me so that I can share my experience with my SSP team-mates and make the team stronger.

“I’m very excited for this tour and I’m confident of making an impact there. After all, my dream is to one day playing for a top European team so this will be a great chance for me to get clubs to notice me.”

His dad Steven, affectionately known as “Super Sub” when he was part of Lions’ famous 1994 Malaysia Cup-winning team, said this tour will give Marc an indication of where he stands against some of the top young talents in the world.

“At this stage of his career, it’s good for him to know where he stands at an international level,” said Steven, who is now a coach at the ActiveSg Football Academy. “He can only do that by going up against players of a higher standard. In England, the level of football there is very high.

“So I want him to go there and test himself against those boys. Hopefully, he can rise up to the challenge and meet the standard that they’re looking for.”

Steven added that he will not hesitate to send Marc overseas for the long-term if the right opportunity comes knocking.

This mirrors what fellow local football icon Fandi Ahmad has done for his sons Irfan, Ikhsan and Ilhan – the former two trained in Chile for over two years, while Ilhan is expected to head to England this week.

“Of course, I would love for Marc to train in England for the long-term, and get a school to study there as well, because it will help his football development immensely,” said Steven.

“But it’s not easy to get a permit to play in the UK, so we have to see if the F-17 or GIS can help us with the procedure and see how we can work around it.

“Unlike in my time (as players), the kids now have more opportunities to play overseas, and so we must expose them as much as we can. Going to Europe, there’ll be more people watching Marc play, so we need him to take this step and get out of his comfort zone and see how far he can develop as a player.”

Marc, accompanied by his father, departed for England on Monday (Oct 10) night. The expenses of the trip for Marc, which is expected to reach up to S$7,000, will largely be borne by the F-17 Academy.

Source: TODAY Online

October 11, 2016
Woman Gets Year’s Jail For Killing Hubby Who Attacked Her

Their marriage of almost two years was on the rocks.

Not only did they sleep in separate bedrooms, they also barely talked. And they texted each other if they needed to communicate.

In August last year, things came to a head with tragic consequences.

The wife would later tell the police that her husband, suspecting her of cheating on him, had attacked her – choking and hitting her until she confessed to the affair.

Then, armed with a knife, he threatened to kill her and their 14-month-old daughter.

She reacted by grabbing a knife and later stabbing him in the chest, puncturing his heart and killing him.

Yesterday, Vivien Teoh Yi Wen, now 27, was jailed for a year for causing grievous hurt to her husband, Mr Gordon Yeo Han Tong, 33, on grave and sudden provocation.

The sentence was backdated to when she was remanded. She has served her time and is now free.

A search on the Registry of Marriages website shows that the couple got married on Oct 5, 2013.

Their daughter was born in June 2014.

By August last year, their relationship had soured. Though they still lived together in a four-room HDB flat in Block 636B, Senja Road, in Bukit Panjang, they slept in different bedrooms, and seemed to communicate only by texting, according to court papers.

Mr Yeo, who was vice-president of business development at an IT company, based on his Linkedin profile, was preparing to divorce his wife, whom he suspected of having an affair with a colleague.

THE QUARREL

On Aug 30, at about 10.30pm, Teoh, a senior human resource executive at the Ministry of Social and Family Development, was in the master bedroom with her daughter when she texted Mr Yeo to tell him to stop driving her car because he did not have a valid licence.

Unhappy, he knocked on the bedroom door, but she refused to let him in.

The knocking eventually woke their daughter up, and Teoh texted Mr Yeo to go away, but he refused.

At about 11.25pm, the lights and the air-conditioning in the master bedroom suddenly went off.

Suspecting her husband had switched off the electricity in a bid to draw her out, Teoh texted her mother.

The mother later told her that her father had spoken to Mr Yeo, who said there had been a power trip. The electricity came back on soon after.

Teoh later went out to get milk for their daughter, and was confronted by Mr Yeo in the kitchen.

He demanded to know why she had locked her room door. When she ignored him, he blocked her way out of the kitchen.

Teoh managed to get past him and scrambled back to the bedroom, but he barged in. So as not to disturb their daughter, they agreed to go outside to talk.

But when Mr Yeo tried to snatch her mobile phone, she screamed.

THE FIGHT

He pushed and pinned her to the floor, and choked her.

She swung her arms at him, and he released his grip on her to grab her mobile phone, which displayed a text message from her colleague.

When Mr Yeo refused to give the phone back to her, Teoh kneed him in the groin area. He retaliated by wrapping his arm around her neck in a chokehold.

She then punched him in the groin, causing him to drop the phone. Before she could pick it up, he grabbed it and threw it towards the common toilet.

She dashed to retrieve it, but he grabbed her head and hit it against the toilet mirror.

Teoh heard her daughter crying and told her husband that they had to attend to her.

Mr Yeo let Teoh leave, picked up her phone and followed her to the bedroom, where he badgered her to unlock the phone. After she unlocked it, he scrolled through her messages as their daughter started crying again.

Teoh carried the baby to the kitchen to get a pacifier. At the kitchen service yard, she shouted: “Help, my husband is trying to kill me.”

Mr Yeo kicked the bi-fold door and it slammed into their daughter, who fell and hit her head. He grabbed a knife, pointed it at his wife and told her to return to the master bedroom.

She checked her daughter for injuries as he browsed through her phone messages. When he told her she had one last chance to confess, she admitted that she had been cheating on him.

Enraged, Mr Yeo told his wife that he was going to kill her and their daughter before taking his own life.

Teoh then carried the baby into the kitchen to get ice for her head as Mr Yeo followed behind.

THE STABBING

In the kitchen, she grabbed a knife from the drawer with her right hand, and brandished it at him while carrying the baby with her left arm.

He ordered her to drop the knife, but she refused and retreated to the master bedroom. Along the way, she saw Mr Yeo’s phone on the bed of his room.

She went in to take his phone so she could call for help, but he barged in and closed the door.

Teoh pointed the knife at Mr Yeo and tried to grab his phone.

Mr Yeo, who was still holding a knife, closed the curtains – making the room even darker as the lights were off – and moved towards his wife, who warned him to stay away.

As he continued towards her, he told her that it would be her fault if their daughter were to die.

At this point, Teoh lost her self-control and swung the knife at her husband, stabbing him.

She then fled the unit with their daughter – accidentally cutting herself with the knife in the process – and met her mother at a nearby block.

The mother then called the police.

Mr Yeo was pronounced dead at 1.19am on Aug 31. He was later found to have 11 stab wounds, the first of which pierced his heart.

He also suffered five potentially fatal wounds to his liver, omentum and colon.

Teoh had bruises all over her body and head. She also had fingermarks on her neck.

She was initially charged with murder last September.

For causing grievous hurt on sudden and grave provocation, Teoh could have been jailed up to six years and fined up to $10,000.

Couple killings

MARCH 2016

Rosdi Joenet, 51, a driver, was jailed for nine years for killing his wife of 21 years, Madam Faridah Senin, 41, at their Jurong West Street 81 flat on Nov 17, 2012.

He suspected the mother of his three children had been cheating on him, despite no evidence of an affair.

At around 5am, Rosdi stabbed her repeatedly with a kitchen knife, inflicting 26 injuries.

Rosdi was diagnosed to be suffering from a delusional disorder before the killing, and had his sentence reduced to 7½ years because of his delayed psychiatric treatment.

APRIL 2016

Zheng Xianghua, a 38-year-old lorry driver, was jailed for nine years for killing his wife at his rented room in Block 503, Tampines Central 1 on Dec 16, 2014.

He suspected his wife, Madam Wang Xueyan, 37, a component assembler, was cheating on him and stabbed her repeatedly with a knife that had a 20cm-long blade after a quarrel. Madam Wang had 14 stab wounds on her chest and back.

Zheng was found to be suffering from depression and a delusional disorder.

NOVEMBER 2015

Hu Ziqing, 61, was jailed for 10 years for strangling his wife of seven years, beautician Liu Bi Jiao, 41, in their rented flat at Block 296A, Choa Chu Kang Avenue 2 on Aug 8, 2013.

He had wanted to return to China but she wanted to remain in Singapore with her daughter from a previous marriage until she completed her tertiary education.

JANUARY 2015

Ong Wei Poh, 37, slashed his wife, Madam Koh Siang Hua, 39, 30 times at their Park View Mansion home in Yuan Ching Road on Jan 8 last year.

In an e-mail titled Jurong Murder, which he sent to various media, Ong described his failed marriage, and said his wife had shown him little respect and would not let him work in her family’s furniture business.

Ong then stabbed himself four times. The couple were taken to National University Hospital, where they died.

Scene of the stabbing stood empty for a year

The flat where former human resource executive Vivien Teoh Yi Wen, 27, killed her husband has stood empty for the past year.

Old brochures and fliers, covered in black dirt, were strewn between the gate and the main door when The New Paper went to the unit on the 15th storey of Block 636B, Senja Road.

The gate was secured with a silver padlock. Another was left hanging on the gate.

Teoh fatally stabbed her husband, Mr Gordon Yeo Han Tong, 33, in August last year after a violent quarrel during which he choked her, pushed her head against a mirror, and threatened to kill her and their young daughter.

Neighbours later described loud shouting and banging coming from the flat on that fateful night.

Most described the couple, who had moved into the flat about five months earlier, as friendly.

Yesterday, a neighbour, who declined to be named, told TNP that while she did not know the couple well, they seemed to be “nice and friendly”.

“The last I saw her (Teoh) was when she returned to the flat a couple of days after the incident, accompanied by the police,” she said.

“Then a week later, her mother came but left in a hurry. Since then, the flat has been left empty.”

Source: The New Paper

October 11, 2016
Working After School Hours Part Of ‘Service’

I see Madam Tay Lee Chuan’s proposal (“MOE should control teachers’ working hours”; Thursday) as unrealistic, from a service and practical standpoint.

For a start, to blame the principal for pushing staff to work beyond school hours is ignoring the fact that most of the time, the principal himself also attends to after-school activities and is, therefore, not immune to putting in extra hours during week nights and weekends.

The school is providing a service, with its customers being primarily the students who are minors, and the parents. Students need constant chaperoning.

Parents pick schools with the “best service” to maximise the potential of their children. They have a strong preference for schools with the best results in major exams and strong showing at co-curricular activity (CCA) competitions, which means extra class time and training to boost results.

Most parents have full-time jobs and are not able to attend meet-the-parents sessions or student performances during normal school hours. Therefore, it is not realistic to have such sessions during weekday school hours.

As a grassroots leader, I am also aware that in many yearly major events organised by community centres, the nearby schools are invited to showcase talents, for example, in the performing arts.

This will involve students and teachers putting in extra effort to prepare or rehearse after school. This will benefit students, giving them better CCA grading and outside-the-classroom learning experiences.

All this comes at a price for everyone involved.

Quite often, schools will do their best to ask parent volunteers to chaperone or help out at such extra school activities, but few actually turn up.

Therefore, more teachers are needed on such occasions.

If the Education Ministry can train more teachers to replace those who resign, why not use the same effort to cut class size and share the work load?

Source: The Straits Times

October 11, 2016
New FAS Fitness Coach: Lions’ Scores ‘Poorest’ I Had Seen

Balder Berckmans has worked with English giants Manchester City and Cologne of Germany.

The Belgian also had stints in Russia (Krylia Sovetov), Belgium (KV Mechelen) and Saudi Arabia (Al Ahli).

Hired by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) in February, the fitness supremo put the national players through a VO2 max test – it measures aerobic endurance – in July, and found the scores to be the “poorest” he had ever seen.

After a closer look at the findings, Berckmans, FAS’ fitness conditioning coach and instructor discovered that it was not the case of the Lions being unfit, but the fact that they simply did not push themselves.

Speaking to The New Paper last Wednesday, he said: “When I looked at the heart-rate monitor after those tests in July, it was low.

“So those test values were not really representative of what our players can achieve, because they didn’t go to their maximum.”

Berckmans was speaking on the sidelines of a Lions’ training session ahead of last Friday’s Causeway Challenge against Malaysia at the National Stadium, which ended 0-0. The team have flown to Hong Kong for a friendly with the hosts tomorrow.

Fitness has been a perennial issue for footballers here.

Drawn in a tough group for next month’s AFF Suzuki Cup, where the Lions will play South-east Asia’s No. 1 team in co-hosts Philippines, defending champions Thailand and darkhorses Indonesia, fitness will be crucial if the Lions are to finish in the top two and advance to the semi-finals.

NOT ENOUGH GAMES

Berckmans believes the poor results from the VO2 test can be partly put down to the fact there are only 24 matches in the Great Eastern-Yeo’s S.League season – 20 of V Sundramoorthy’s 25-man squad play in the local competition.

Berckmans, however, has seen an improvement in the effort put in over the last three months, as the national players get to grips with his style of fitness conditioning.

“If I look at this last week, then I really like (the response from) a lot of boys, if I compare them with the first camp or first months,” said Berckmans.

“Now, some players are really pushing more, even though it was a bit higher intensity and a bit higher conditioning-wise than before.”

He also believes the players have improved because they have been talking to the players about pushing themselves mentally, even if it was through a small fitness drill.

Explained the 29-year-old: “If we talk about mentality, it starts with running.

“When you say ‘touch the line’ and change direction, how many players will actually touch the line?

“From there, you can see which players are working for themselves and which are pulling their handles back.”

Singapore midfield ace Hariss Harun – whom Berckmans points out as one of only a handful of players who clocked good scores in the VO2 max test – felt a shift in mentality has to come from the player, first.

“It’s about how motivated you are,” said the Johor Darul Ta’zim star.

“In my opinion, that half a metre, whether you touch the line or not, will make a difference in games.

“I believe here in the national team, my teammates and I give our best in every training session.

“In the end, it boils down to the individual and how much you push, because only he knows how his body really feels.”

Hariss claimed playing for Malaysia’s best-run club has helped him develop as a professional footballer.

“Coming from a club that has everything, you can just focus on your football,” said the 25-year-old.

“It helps when you come to training, the coaches have a programme for you to follow, and you have the gym right there, the recovery pool right there, the jacuzzi…

PRO SET-UP

“Everything is available, you don’t have to make a booking or anything.

“You can come to training an hour earlier or stay an hour after to use the facilities.

“In Singapore, if all our players have this at their disposal every day, it will definitely help in one way or another to improve local football.”

Aside from his work with the national players, Berckmans has also been tasked to formulate a fitness strategy as part of FAS technical director Michel Sablon’s blueprint for the development of Singapore football.

He is hopeful that the plan can lift overall fitness levels and boost the senior national team in five to 10 years’ time.

Said Berckmans: “The basics of our plan is to start from the young boys, in the Junior Centres of Excellence (Under-12 JCOE) teams.

“The fitness programme is not really significant still because at that age, they just need to play, run and work in small areas.

“At that age, they increase their physical fitness abilities significantly simply by playing more football.

“When I look at our current National Football Academy boys (players from 13 to 18), I find there is a lack of physical coordination – hand-eye, feet, running technique, speed drills – so it’s something we work on a lot in the JCOEs.

“Another part of the plan is collaboration with coach education, reaching JCOE and COE coaching staff.

“We’ve spent lots of days on the pitch and in the classroom to share how coaches can get the biggest benefit and increase their players’ fitness levels.”

Before the 1999 Rugby World Cup, the England squad spent three days abseiling down cliff faces, changing wheels on army trucks and crawling through muddy terrain.

Eight years later, Australia and France went through a similar rigorous process, preparing for the 2007 tournament by spending a week with their countries’ respective Commando units.

As Singapore’s footballers gear up for the AFF Suzuki Cup next month, Lions ace Hariss Harun would be up for a similar experience.

Said the 25-year-old midfield star: “For team bonding, it can definitely be beneficial.

“Something out of the box like this, for a short stint, would be good.

“It also helps keep the mind flowing, doing something new, away from football… I guess it’s something like cross-training.

“Having said that, football is a very skill-specific sport and there’s a lot of tactical elements you need to work on ahead of a big tournament like the Suzuki Cup… But I think it can be useful.”

Fitness coach Balder Berckmans also said he was open to the idea, if Singapore coach V Sundramoorthy was on board.

“You always have to be open to different ideas and sometimes you get really interesting things out of other sports,” said the Belgian.

“The main thing to consider if we implement this is, are our boys ready to cope?

BETTER

“If we do something, it must be to make our boys better or improve their technical or tactical level.

“Since I’ve come in (in February) with fitness exercises that are more football-specific, it is already something for them to try adapt… Some boys, they like it, some boys, they struggle a bit with it.

“If the time is right to implement new things, we might try it.

“But it’s always a communication between me and Sundram first, to see what we implement.”

Source: The New Paper

October 11, 2016
No Further Action To Be Taken Over Former NMP Calvin Cheng’s Online Comments, Say Police

The police have decided not to take any further action against former Nominated MP Calvin Cheng, who was being investigated after a report was made over controversial comments he made online.

The decision was made after careful consideration of the facts and circumstances of the case and in consultation with the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the police said in a letter to Mr Cheng dated Oct 5.

They added that all investigations and enquiries into the matter would stop, and the case will be closed.

A police report was made against Mr Cheng last December (2015) by People’s Power Party (PPP) organising secretary Augustin Lee Tze Shih, over Mr Cheng’s comments online about killing the children of terrorists.

In a four-line Facebook comment in last November, Mr Cheng had seemed to advocate killing the children of terrorists “in case they grow up to take revenge”, which drew sharp criticism from netizens.

Mr Lee had said in his police report that the comments contravened the Sedition Act.

Following the controversy, the Media Literacy Council, which advises the Government on developments pertaining to the Internet and media, and which Mr Cheng was a member of, issued a statement saying that his words were insensitive but did not amount to hate speech.

Mr Cheng also apologised to his fellow council members, the Media Development Authority and his supporters in a Facebook post.

Source: The Straits Times

October 11, 2016