SPH throw weight behind but cancelled launch tell us the turth

Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) continue to throw it weight behind the ASEAN Super League (ASL) project headed by former PAP Toa Payoh-Bishan man Zainduin Nordin with their paper The Newpaper (TNP) reporting FIFA president Infantino support the plan.

However in the age of the internet, where one no longer have to take the facts of a story from only one source, the turth appear otherwise.

Indeed in the link, Football magazine Four Four Two tell us a different story as they report The worthless one Zainduin Nordin had cancelled a launch to officially kickstart the ASL project this week as ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) officials have got cold feet and noises are being make to cancel this project as support is at best lukewarm if not ice-cold.

Worse is there is much resistance from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), who is AFF head, as they continue to refuse to give any approval and AFC is somebody who AFF do not wish to clash with.

Also the former FAS president, who is seeking to become ASL CEO, admitted to FFT ASL may not make it to launch even by October 2017, let alone the September date TNP keep mentioning.

Why are such facts ignored by the SPH media and they wonder why readership of their papers are falling.

Who want to get such baised news and refusal to tell us the entire story just because  the worthless one is a former PAP man and it is well-known SPH backed them to the end no matter the facts.

ASL is far from ready and that is a fact everybody, other than the former Bishan-Tao Poyah MP and You SPH, acknowledged.

Elitism by any other name is still elitism

The newly revamped, and now free, The Newpaper (TNP) reported Fandi Ahmad project with Football Association of Singapore (FAS) is taking shape and frankly nothing I've read tell me it is not yet another 'elite squad project'.

No doubt they tell us the newly recruited players are outside of the system so they are 'expanding' youth development.

If it was so easy to develop players at such late age after the system had failed them when they were much younger then a number of Asian countries namely China, Indonesia and Malaysia would be kingpins now.

Why did I precisely named these 3 nations?

Because they have attempted similar schemes and with even bigger budgets; China sending them to Brazil, Indonesia twice with the first in Italy and second Uruguay and Malaysia with their idol project and their elites in Slovakia but may I asked if anybody's can named the success story.

Even a hardcore fan of football like me have a hard time finding names I can define as success and their careers is nothing like those with well-established youth development from Japan and S.Korea while in ASEAN, nobody is even near Thailand who have the help of sport schools system (They are unlike Singapore Sport School who are alone and only trained elite so they have the numbers advantage)

And numbers are important as once again I see Fandi Ahmad project is for only 30 players so how is it not elitism.

If it was really a youth development expansion then they should have started with the Under-8 to Under-10 etc like many have told them before but how can I expect any different as those in charge only know elitism squad system and this project is no different no matter what they call it.

Only the small number of elite players need the best with $4millions for them while the rest should just be happy with whatever leftover they can get like the $70 k.

The reason FAS persist with ASL revealed

TODAY paper has reported the ASEAN SUPER LEAGUE (ASL) is back on the road.

I cannot understand why the FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION OF SINGAPORE (FAS) persist with this project when it has no support or else it will not have to keep sending teams overseas to sell the idea even now as reported in the report.

Worse was it has no sponsorship of any kind so the money has to come from FAS pocket.

That is until now when one sentence from that report tell me everything, it reported FAS former president Zainduin Nordin, he stepped down a few days ago, was appointed ASL chief executive officer (CEO).

This is in my eyes the worst form of self-interest as that former Bishan_Toa Poyah MP has sacrificed Singapore football to secure his own future.

A CEO like the selfish asshole he is will not pay himself 'badly'.

The S-league CEO Lim Chin got himself a six-figures sum yearly excluding bonuses so his asshole will be much higher.

Not bad in the current economic climate where jobs are being lost and an average citizen (he will claim he is one of us now) can only hope to find a new job including a high paying salary that soon.

The best part is ASL is a private company and not under FAS so they do not have to reveal their salaries scale which caused problems for that asshole in September  FAS AGM.

He has planned his future pathway well and is this what PEOPLE ACTION PARTY (PAP) meant when they keep pushing him upon on Singapore football for our own good.

The government has failed Singapore football by allowing their own personal self-interest to triumph over the common good.

A million dollars salary for that asshole ending in the destruction of much of Singapore football is what we got for nearly a decade of his leadership.

$4 millions wasted for Tong election campaign

Saw the TODAY story on Football Association of Singapore (FAS) pumping $4 millions into youth football but instead of rejoicing, once I saw where it is going, I knew it will be wasted as the problems are not just at the under-23 level but the entire system.

So what is the use of spending all that only on under-23 and neglecting the rest!

It is clear as daylight it is meant for campaign purposes with FAS vice-president Edwin Tong an unpopular candidate for FAS president due to his association with the current incumbent, the even more unpopular, Zainudin Nordin.

Thus just days after the FAS AGM revealed high wages for a few FAS personals (Want to guess who) as well as the high amount of money that been blown elsewhere for no benefit to Singapore football like the now defunct LionsXII project, we see him heading a project now aiming for the Olympics.

Is this what Singapore football need?

The answer is no for what Singapore football need now is to kick-start the now-forgotten National Training Centre (NTC) if he really care about the state of Singapore football.

After all as an example even England - since most Singaporeans followed only the English game - have finally finished building their own St Geogre's Park National Training Centre, after over a decade delay, as they admitted they need it more than ever with European Eilties like Germany, France and Spain having such centres and benefiting from it.

Yet it is not what Edwin Tong need as he need headlines that he can achieve right away to kick-start his own election bid for the FAS post; now postponed to next year.

That is why I am sure he must given a big salary increase to Fandi  Ahmad to turn down Pahang and all that money for the SEA GAMES, Asian GAMES and the Olympics until 2021.

Let be brutally honest, building a NTC is expensive and in Singapore, where the government is unlikely to fully fund it, FAS will have to come out with a majority of the cash so we need to ask ourselves if we are  really serious about building it.

Because looked at the way we are spending!

The LIONSXII project had cost over a eight-figures sum in total in 4 years and ballooning at an average rate of $700k yearly with the final year budgeting at $4 millions and ticket revenues (Includes national teams games) revealed recently show we were only covering less than half of that money spend yearly.

That is why in recently years I have questioned why youth development are disappearing under the name of "revamp" at the same time as LIONSXII appearance.

Did FAS transfer cash there and have it helped Singapore football as the LIONSXII was packaged as "youth development". (Despite the laughable part that most players on the field were always in the mid 20s to late 20s)

The national team showcased it is not so as our national team is ageing and are now manned by core players who are either in their late 20s or early 30s with no new players in sight.

All this under the eyes of Edwin Tong, who has been vice-president since 2013, so to tell me he now care about youth development when he was part of the team tearing it down in recent years until LIONSXII expulsion by Malaysia is a joke as far as I am concerned.

Indeed the new project is just an example of his own self-interest being put ahead of Singapore needs as I can predict they spend it on mostly headgrabbing headlines of overseas trip either for the squad or a few individuals that helped nobody.

The 2015 SEA GAMES blueprint already tell us such trips did us no favour as we were destroyed by our regional rivals. (who had mostly send their second teams)

So the $4 millions is already going down the toilet and Edwin Tong need to assess if such a project is really in the interest of Singapore football at this moment in time.