Zainudin ready to abandon S-league

Up until now, it had been puzzling to many why Zainudin have done such a bad job managing S-league and the answer is crystal clear now.

He is more concern about getting Singapore back to Malaysia Cup.

So the impression he give the outside world that he is affixed with S-league development thus the reason for us not to pursue ACL status is just a smokescreen.

After all, in another few years under Zainudin, we will not have our own league already and without a domestic league, there is no more ACL so why should the FAS president care about that fate.

In a way, I expect his biggest supporter in the media will be one-time editor Jeffery Low and indeed, the writer should be coming out in support of Mr Zainudin.

For, as written before, Jeffery Low started his biased attacks on the S-league and promoting the Malaysian League as one of Asian top League back in the early 2000s.

In a way, he was only stopped when Ho Peng Kee took over from Mah Bow Tan and the then-FAS president stated he will not be bringing Singapore back to the Malaysia Cup.

It sparked the min-revival in the S-league as even from the TODAY reports, one can find the crowds increasing under the term of Ho Peng Kee

But now, it is all gone and in a way this make me more hopeful the term of FAS president can lengthen.

After all, the problem of re-centralizing the National team (as slowly the Selection side will become National team or else how is FAS going to implement this) will likely not show under Zainudin so he should be the one who clean up his own mess.

For everybody blamed S-league for not winning everything under the sky (Yes, I am not joking).

But the fact is S-league was formed at a time of changing landscape with the East-West divide crashing down in that period and for the first time, our Lions were exposed to the rest of Asia we were never expected to face.

No more were Singapore doing to face teams like the Maldives, Nepal, Cambodia, Laos etc for our World Cup or Asian Cup qualifiers.

It is now Kuwait, UAE, Jordan, Syria etc

Singapore can now faced these sides with a stronger hand as it is more than a decade since S-league came up and the divide came down but once we returned to Malaysia Cup, one wonder what direction we will take.

After all, honest speaking, S-league clubs (if they are still around) will not be interested to develop players as what is in it for them.

This will be like the NFL situation, as even with talks that are talents down there, the NFL players that have been brought to the S-league before have never in truth set the league alight.

But can one blamed them as let not talk about the funding, the fact is what purpose do they have in the development process as there is neither any credit nor any mention if they did it.

S-league clubs should not be expected to aid in the development of Singapore football especially after they have been abandoned.

As for talks we can develop together, I only have to say the difference between the era Ho Peng Kee and Zainudin already show us, S-league need our President focus and once his mind start to drift, it will have problems.

As an example, if there was a conflict and in the old Malaysia Cup era there were, who will FAS side with.

After that, come the topic I want to talk about - money.

People will say it is a small matter as once we go back, there will be massive sponsorship waiting for us that will pay for everything but this is fans talk and not backed up by data from history.

If sponsorship can pay for everything then how is it possible for FAS, when they were in the then-FAM semi-pro Premier League, to have lost money in 4 of the 6 years and the losses were all record one with losses reaching $1.5 million in one calendar year.

Fans will wonder, why does it matter as it is only numbers.

It is not mere numbers as when one make losses, they have to cut back on something and the areas FAS cut back on were youth developments for until now, those in charge of FAS at that time still cannot answer why it look 16 years to re-invite foreign teams back into the Lions City Cup and it only happen after we pulled out of Malaysia Cup.

Let be honest, their focus were not on youth development as the senior team needed money and attention.

Zainudin can promised it will not slip under his charge but I do not believed a word coming out of his mouth, as at this point in time, for the current, and likely future, Lions City Cup edition, it is already suffering from funding problems and as hosts, we are facing difficulties inviting teams to make the trip to the tournament.

Also, we are no longer a developing nation anymore and our economy had reached a highly-developed stage thus talents are becoming tougher to develop especially from 1990s onward as our youth no longer have the luxury to play football as pastime, especially when they become C.Ronaldo etc in PS3 or Xbox.

That why the role of FAS is especially important as only they have the resources and reach to develop players but once, they have to run another club, will their focus be there.

History tell me, it will not be for if we keep our rotation of FAS president, the next one only have five years to achieve glory and youth development take too long so it is easier to focus on the senior squad and let be honest, once we are in the Malaysia Cup, we will have the population advantage as no Malaysian state have more than 4 million unlikely Singapore 5 million.

The temptation will be too great and our current President is already showing he cannot resist as why care about the future when he is not here as nobody ever blamed any former FAS President.

The good point is no longer will our defeats in the international arena be blamed on S-league and in an increasing competitive Asian arena (unlikely the mid 90s where a number of Asian leagues have not been formed yet, now virtually every Asian nation have a league) we will find it tough to depend on a squad of 25 players.

So maybe after humiliating defeats, we can wonder where we gone wrong again.