IN an interview in August last year, R. Vengadasalam said: “I can’t stand Football Association of Singapore (FAS). A lot of things are not right. In my 13-month conversation with them, I was hoping that they would change, but they did not change.”
He went ‘On the Record over 938LIVE’ with Bharati Jagdish with some hard truths about Singapore football.
Like the “Mouth of the North”, as he’s nicknamed, he said there’s a scarcity of football-hearted personalities speaking up: “A lot of people don’t speak up in Singapore, which is a bad thing. I always tell people that whatever news you create is important for football in Singapore. The good, the bad, the ugly – it doesn’t matter.”
His longer-term vision is to see a “change is that everybody in FAS, and the new FAS, must be allowed to speak their minds”. He explains: “As long as they stay within the rules of the game, they must be able to speak. Now, coaches go out and they don’t speak, the minute they say something too daring, they’re called up.
“But you must allow this excitement of speech to be there in sports, so that the truth can help us make improvements. I’ve told my team this as well and I believe they can.”
Matters on and off the field have not changed the last eight months. The state of Made-in-Singapore is close to its doldrums from the Lions downwards right to the grassroots. And it’s high time for more than a kiss-of-life to transform Singapore’s struggling football scene.
Who will speak out?
Not Vengadasalam, who has been one of the quietest mouses since the FAS annual general meeting on April 29. I wonder what happened to the “Mouth of the North”?
FAMOUS IDIOM
That brings to mind the famous idiom “bell the cat” which simply means to perform a very dangerous or very difficult task. It is taken metaphorically from a fable about a mouse who proposes to put a bell on a cat, so as to be able to hear the cat coming.
Since I took on the FAS big-wigs this month, I’ve been slapped with letters demanding “unreserved apologies” for which I’ve categorically made it clear I see no reason to.
Likewise, as a footballer at heart, I made it clear, too, that I’m also prepared, without prejudice and without admission to liability, to clear the air with a face-to-face meeting to see if we can explore an amicable resolution and avoid a further escalation of the matter.
For the record, I’ve reported on as a journalist and served the football fraternity in many capacities as FAS committee member, S-League match commissioner, AFC-Licenced coach, FAS referee and AFC referee instructor for close to four decades, from Nadesan Ganesan (1976-1982), Teo Chong Tee (1982-1988), Abbas Abu Amin (1988-1991), Hsu Tse-Kwang (1991-1994), Ibrahim Othman (1994-1999), Mah Bow Tan (1999-2004), Ho Peng Kee (2004-2009), Zainudin Nordin (2009-2016) and Lim Kia Tong.
With Teo Chong Tee (MP for Changi Constituency), I was Vice Chairman of Changi Constituency Sports Club, in NFL One, and under Mah Bow Tan, a Board Member at Tampines Rovers (where he was MP, Minister) when the S-League started in 1996.
I must say, without fear or favour, that the most discomposed and demoralised periods were under Zainudin Nordin and Lim Kia Tong, the past seven years, when there appeared to be no “law and order” at the Jalan Besar Stadium headquarters, when a lack of leadership from President to General Secretary led to a damning failure in day-to-day management and the lowest levels of football, not to mention Singapore’s worst-ever FIFA ranking.
Recently, together with a few senior referees and referee assessors, I wrote a 10-page memorandum to list out the gross shortcomings among the men-in-black.
The imperfections and inefficiencies have now worsened to S-League refereeing marks being changed unscrupulously simply because there’s no “law and order”.
MAJOR HICCUPS
There are plenty more of major hiccups along the corridors of the Jalan Besar Stadium headquarters from youth development to structural failures in the S-League and Prime League, not to mention the National Football League, and in coaching and refereeing management.
Intense coffee-shop chats hover about no “law and order” among the men-in-black where even a S-League referee assessor was told to change marks for a Singapore Cup match. And how some FAS staff even appointed themselves for overseas trips!
Some say the recent separation of football and politics is a good thing. The ruling has forced the FAS to shake up its overall infrastructure and perhaps kick some sense and joy back into the game.
But, behind all the behind-the-scenes dramas, the talk of town is there is still something rotten in the FAS headquarters – probably quite a lot wrong if this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Unlike Vengadasalam, who some say is all bluster and nothing more, in this continuing football crunch, I think it’s time for good-hearted folks to stand up.
If you ask me, after 40 years adoring the sport, I’m prepared to bell the proverbial cat, without fear or favour, so that football can move forward.
- Suresh Nair is a Singapore-based journalist who has covered the regional football scene for close to four decades.
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