The long-awaited Football Association of Singapore (FAS) elections is set for further delay, after the association opted not to put its revised constitution to the vote at Satuday morning’s (Sept 24) Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the Jalan Besar Stadium.
The new FAS constitution, which was approved by world football governing body Fifa last week, was initially expected to be raised at the AGM for the affiliates to vote to approve or reject the proposed changes.
However, this failed to occur after the FAS decided on Friday night that it needed to spend more time consulting their stakeholders and members before drafting up possible revisions to the proposed constitution.
This comes after they received overwhelming feedback from their members over the contents of the proposed constitution.
Addressing the media following the conclusion of Satuday’s AGM, which lasted about one-and-a-half hours and was attended by 42 of the 46 affiliates, FAS vice-president Bernard Tan explained: “The decision not to put the new constitution to the vote today did not come easy. But a lot of members have requested for more time to take a comprehensive look at the proposed constitution.
“There have also been a lot of amendments being put forward by several members. Given that this constitutional change that will lead to the elections is a significant one, we shouldn’t take it lightly and we can’t dismiss any suggestions as frivolous.
“We have to take into account what all the members have said. This will also give us more time to explain to the members about the constitutional changes and hopefully at the end of this process, we will come out with a mutual understanding and agreement regarding the constitution.”
FAS president Zainudin Nordin revealed association officials had expected the constitution to be resolved quickly, but admitted they underestimated the interest the issue had garnered.
“Maybe it’s overconfidence or underestimation, but the interest could have been better measured,” said Zainudin. “But we have learnt from this episode and we will further engage our members.
“At least we now have a baseline for everybody to discuss. We welcome all suggestions and proposals. We will go through every single one and if we can find a certain consensus, then we’ll make the amendments, send the constitution to Fifa for approval and get the next version.
“We can then call for an Extraordinary General Meeting (EOGM) in future to pass the new constitution through.”
The FAS however, were unable to give a timeframe for how long the whole process would take.
In the interim, the current FAS executive committee (Exco), whose term is due to expire at the end of the month, will request for an extension of their appointment by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) to continue running the association until the constitution is passed and the elections are called.
Tan assured that this would not see the FAS run afoul of Fifa’s statute 13.1(i), which does not allow interference from “third parties” such as governments.
“For this period of time, the old constitution will continue,” said Tan. “That means the exco that’s been in charge will remain in charge and will discharge their duties with Singapore football’s best interests at heart.”
Added Zainudin: The process now is for us to get an extension of appointment so that work can continue to be done. For whatever reason that an extension cannot be obtained, then Fifa will take over.”
Following the AGM, Fifa’s representative at the meeting, Luca Nicola, met with the FAS affiliates and stakeholders for close to two hours to discuss the proposed constitutional changes.
Nicola, the manager of member associations at Fifa, said he was encouraged by the discussion and believes it is possible for the new constitution to be passed by the end of the year.
“There’s been really good progress with what’s been done so far, and the skeleton of the constitution is in place,” said Nicola, who was involved in the process since it began in November last year.
“It’s more or less there, but the FAS will now have more discussions to see what other changes can be made, but the overall consensus is that nothing too drastic needs to be done, so I think it is possible to get it passed by the end of the year.
“It can take up to four years for a constitution to be changed, so to do it within a year would be very good.”
Nicola added that the eligibility criteria for the FAS presidential candidate is not “set in stone” and that it is defined by the individual member association.
This was one of the contentious points that several members had brought up about the proposed constitution, which stated that those intending to run for the role of president had to serve as an active member of association football for two of the past five years.
R Vengadasalam, who has announced he will assemble a team for the FAS elections and had submitted a set of proposed amendments to the constitution earlier this week, said it was encouraging that the FAS had decided to sit down and take on board the opinions of the members.
“I think we’re almost there, but there still needs to be some discussions about several points of the constitution,” said Venga, the former manager of Woodlands Wellington. “The FAS is willing to look at our amendments and the Fifa representative has also asked us to consider several things before sitting down to discuss with (FAS vice-president) Lim Kia Tong.
“There’s been no timeframe given, but we expect to have a couple of dialogues more before a new draft constitution is ready to be sent to Fifa.”
Ben Teng, the chairman of S.League outfit Geylang international, added: “It’s good that there’s a postponement of the voting because it allows more time to review the constitution and to let FAS gather more feedback from the members.
“It was good to have Fifa (representative) explain things to us, which provided a lot more clarity. As an S.League club, we do not expect this delay to affect us too much and we will continue to function as per normal.”
Source: TODAY Online
