A word on Shaiful Esah

Amid all the talk on Singapore win against Malaysia, I just want a word on Shaiful Esah as he appeared to have suffered a terrible injury in the game.

Even in the best case, it looked like he will be out of the Suzuki Cup and that is what I hope for and I am not cursing him but if it was any longer, he may be in  a spot of trouble.

From reports, it seem he has not sign a contract with anybody yet and is only negotiating with clubs so with such a terrible injury from the looks of thing as he reach to call for medical help immediately after the tackle, it is bad and whether he can come back within weeks is a problem.

This is for a sad case of what I think should have been avoided and next time FAS need to remember we are talking about livelihood here.

FAS need to tell players early if they want to retain them or not as frankly the time frame is too short and too late as contract talks start as early as September in cases.

After all, FAS head man is not just from PAP but also an ex-labour movement leader and the government and the labour movement constantly tell the employers that it should give employees ample notice so that they can find new job (or in this case new club) sooner.

But by delaying until November, we are seeing what we are seeing now and players may be without a contract come the new season as clubs have filled their roasters and some players even from the LIONSXII are anxious as not everybody is in demand and not every clubs have the resources to get all the players they want and they have to choose early as they need to build a team for their coach.

So if Shaiful Esah is out for a while then it is FAS fault and they have to pick up the tab and not push it to clubs like so many cases one see before.