My thoughts on FAS president Zainudin Nordin

I had been disappointed by the move by FAS to pull out of the ACL race before any decision was even make but had not wanted to write any POV article on how it reflected on Zainudin Nordin until I read Pohui article in his blog.

It got me thinking not about the foreign teams particpation in the league but whether Zainudin Nordin, the not-so-new FAS president, should be a good bet as FAS president again.

Yes, he can point to his FAS Strategic Plan but a lot of it implementation will take more than the five years I expect to see him in charge of FAS as written here.

Quite frankly, although I asked for the person in the FAS presidency to be given more than one term in charge, Zainudin have not shown up to now why he should be the candidate to sit on the hot seat again.

Right from the start, I had express my doubts in the article - Speak up, Zainudin - about the then-new FAS president and up to now, he is showing I was right to have those doubts about him.

I am not saying this now because I am fustrasted with him for not staying in the ACL race but rather, over the last few months, he has shown more concern about issues other than local football.

Of course, some will say it is because he has other duties other than being FAS president but I am talking about the fact he has found time to speak on the Singtel-BPL deal and World Cup broadcasting.

No doubt, he was speaking about the Singtel-BPL deal in Parliament as a MP of  Toa Poyah-Bishan GRC but Zainudin has to understand the position he in now.

Because of the fact he is FAS president, his statements about any footballing issues get more coverage than the average Joe MPs will expect.

Just like the fact, Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim get more coverage when he talk about the Malay issues as he is the appointed leader despite Zaindiun also being considered to represent the Malay as well.

That was why I was extremely disappointed when you chose to make your first 'official' talk on any football issue, after being appointed FAS president, on the Singtel-BPL deal.

It was a terrible judgment call, for as expected, despite there being several MPs who also raise the issue, your was the only mentioned the most and by name everytime.

That lead to me asking if you are FAS president because you intend to use that position to advance your political career or as you said, you want to develop Singapore football because I cannot link the BPL-Singtel deal with local football.

If that was not bad enough, the World Cup broadcasting deal make me sick to the core when you stick your hand into it.

You decided to broadcast to the media that you are sending our S-league CEO to fly to Zurich to broker a deal and may I asked, what are the bargaining power you have!

Do you intend to pull Singapore out of FIFA like how you pull out of the ACL race?

AFC was not that concerned when you pulled out of the ACL race so tell me how you are going to reach the ear of Sepp Blatter.

But, the worst part was you were allocating FAS resources for a private broadcasting deal which I wonder - if that did happen - if you are going to get the money back from Starhub and Singtel.

This only lead me to deepen my suspicion that the post of FAS president is meant to help your political career as you always seem to have time to talk about foreign football issues but when it come to local issues, your deputy is always the one to appear.

Just like the recent Duric 300th goal incident, everything was pushed to Lions manager Eugene Ho but that show you do not care or you are a poor administrator as he was on the figure 299 for a while and you were not prepared.

It was not as Duric had scored 10 goals in one night thus catching everybody offguard.

After that, your deputy has to come out explain the situation while you kept a low enough profile by just sending your congratulations.

Indeed, I only expect you to appear prominently on the S-league Awards Night; or when Singapore lift the Suzuki Cup.

After all, foreign football issues get more coverage while S-league football only affect a few so is that the reason why over one year into your regime, we seldom find you standing up for S-league on any issues.

That is also why I believed the next few years under Zainudin Nordin will be one of the worst regime ever; coming so soon after Ho Peng Kee had put more effort into local football and the S-league.

We can already see it.

The fact he does not even have the stomach to stay in the ACL battle show he does not want to be associate with failures so by pulling out now, he can find the foreigners as excuses.(As the chances of ACL direct entry were low so it was not just the foreigners issue)

So do not expect to see him leading when his deptuy can be the scapegoat and that is why I do not see how the FAS Strategic Plan can be implemented under him as his judgment and administrating abilities are doubtful in my eyes.

Thus this regime has to end after 2013.

Let hope your regime end in a different way from what I expect but I doubt it as nothing is disputing that.