Kelong is still Kelong under any guise

Former Australian international Abbas Saad will be arriving in Singapore to get his ‘A’ license for coaching and it has got his fans drooling and hoping he return to Singapore.

But ridding myself of emotion, I had questioned in football forums if it was a good idea and was immediately told of the likes of yellow ribbon project (Singapore government will be delighted their project have so much publicity) and Abbas having served his crime etc

In other words, some were defending Abbas to the extent that he did no wrong like Abbas claimed as he mentioned he only ‘helped’ his friends and was ‘benefiting his team.

Unfortunately, Kelong is still Kelong in any other guise.

People are now willing to accept match-fixing in this case as it involved their idol and that show
how sentiments can cloud judgments.

That why we must keep our guard high as the Valencia keeper (Involved in Home-Valencia game) is already claiming he is 'framed'.

Looking at the Sunday Times interview with Abbas Saad, it is clear he believed he did no wrong as he continue to maintain he is 'helping' a friend only and had scored goals.

But match-fixing does need one side to give chance and the other to score so it is Kelong.

Yes, then it is wrong, no matter how beautiful one put it; like 'helping' a friend or ‘benefiting’ his team.

Before going on, I must emphasize I am not stopping any ex-match-fixer a chance back to the game to redeem themselves for it will not be the first time ever S-league saw a club employed a ex-match-fixer as coach for back in 98, TPUFC done so and the person never re-committed.

The difference in why I opposed Abbas is the belief of the persons involved.

One was sorry he ever did it while the other (guess who) does not believe he is ever wrong.

Abbas continue to maintain he is not wrong and that is the problem as players and coaches are at the front line of the battle against the bookies thus can one image an S-league coach claiming kelong is not wrong as long as it benefit his team.

He is breaking kelong into 'bad' kelong & 'good' kelong based on
1) benefiting his team (but nevertheless harming the other side and maybe oneself in future as they cannot always fixed it in your favour)
2) helping his friends (or in truth the bookies)
3) the fans are all winners (which is the most bullshit as asked the Selangor fans in Malaysia if they felt cheated out of a Malaysia Cup Final thanks to the kelong in the semi-final so there are losers and it could even be Singapore one day as I already wrote; the bookies cannot always fixed it in your favour)

It is a flawed argument as kelong is not bad only when it is fixed to go against him.

At this stage, we are still battling kelong on our doorstep as seen in the AFC Cup match - Home vs Valencia - for the bookies will not stop at that thus we need everybody member of the football family to understand match-fixing of any type is wrong.

That is the only way to battle kelong.

Abbas, however do not shared this belief, and it is troublesome for we have seem match-fixing over the last few years like Liaoning as they shared different beliefs on what match-fixing mean.

That why we need him (or not as one does not even know if he is a decent coach) only if he was willing to accept S-league definition of match-fixing which is it is wrong under any circumstances but judging from the Sunday Times, he clearly does not share that.

That why I had opposes his return to coaching in the Republic for corruption start creeping in once we start deceiving ourselves.

Then, the era of FAS new president Zainudin Nordin will be remembered wrongly as the start when we lose our fight against the deadly disease kelong as we lower our definition of match-fixing and I rather take no risk as the bookies are waiting to bounce on any weakness.

We have seem how hard it is to get rid once it is attached as our regional neighbors continue to be plague by it and I rather be the bad guy in opposing Abbas Saad for Singapore football is my only concern