Legacy of a terrible President

Maybe it is still too early to talk on a legacy about a departing President as Zainudin Nordin still has two months to go as FAS President but once the S-league start I do not wish to talk about a man who, in my eye, had given the local league the short end of the straw and with CNY next week, there is no better time.

Also with the man already at the helm for 46 out of his 48 months appointment and if one still cannot decide on his legacy by now then it is unlikely one will decide on it based on the final two months.

But where do one start.

I would say at the beginning where my first POV article asked for him to speak up but soon one was to know why it is better for him to have never spoken at all.

Indeed he had a mouth, in my view, that seem to be not at all connected with his brain as whenever it open he always make promises that are build high up in the sky and virtually impossible to keep thus only making things worse down the road.

Of course, in my view now, he may have a different reason why he kept his mouth shut at that time but more on that later.

His mouth show up as he talk about the now-forgotten Strategic Plan where he make many promises but now as he near the end of his reign, has anything been kept and I knew it was going to be difficult to implement the plan but it was the way he went about it that was the problem.

After milking the positive vibes, Football Association of Singapore (FAS) under our FAS president seem to be throwing darts hoping to hit one of them and nothing illustrate this better than the crown jewel of the Plan -  the National Training Centre.

Right from the start, any sane person will tell him it was impossible to get the Farrer Park land and to have promised that he was building himself up for failure and once he realised it, he told us the Toa Payoh site was also a good alternative but yet again he failed to appreciative Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) already had it own plans and it was never going to work.

Next he tell us Taman Jurong can do as well but considering how badly run-down the site is and how unappealing it is to investors, the cost will be prohibitive and he does not have the money yet so it ended with another brick wall again.

So one get the picture, he was just going around in circle promising one thing after another without accomplishing anything   

Before anybody think it is just the ranting of a fan, the fact 2012 witness Yeo's (major S-league sponsor) and then Courts (Sponsor of Cubs - FAS run team) one by one going to the media or more precisely MediaCorp, as they must know Singapore Press Holding (SPH) will not listen to them much like our FAS President (more on that later), and this tell us his performance in the eye of the stakeholders.

Afterall in interview with SPH papers, he keep telling us 'he was always in constant talks with sponsors (like Yeo's and Courts) and they always support him'.

Then why was it they tell a different story as they told us his actions do not match his words.

It had to be with that mouth of his and it had shown it 'power' in 2011.

Of course once it turn negative on our FAS president he was quick to tell us he was misquoted by SPH Malay paper Berita Harian.

It seem our FAS president does not realise where the problem is and it is not Berita Hariun.

Indeed I do not pity him much as shown in my articles like - My thoughts on FAS president Zainudin Nordin and Zainduin should look after his organisation and not be head coach as well - as he keep breaking promises and his focus, in my view, is suspect.

As shown in the second link, our FAS President focus, in the same year he spoke out on the Strategic Plan, was a joke as he spend the next year not preparing to implement the plan but talking about Singtel and Starhub to the World Cup.

He had a job to do but it seem he was always talking about foreign football and nothing on the job he had at hand.

Also unlikely those promises earlier in the article which were near-to-impossible to keep, much easier one such as the promise of no levy to FAM and a U23 MSL team that could have been kept but it was never the case.

People can talk about the difficulties but let remember the words of former PAP leader & PM Lee Kwan Yew who noted why the western world public fell out of love with their political parties, whoever is in power, as they all make promises they were never likely to keep and that is why he loath to make promises.

The now 88-year-old know, whether in power or not, he cannot take promises lightly for he has to keep them no matter what once the occasion call for it.

For if he break even one of the promise, the question will be why they should trust him again.

And yet our FAS President proceed to break the above two mentioned promises in less than 6 months when it was fresh out of the oven with a 10% levy to FAM along with all travelling costs by MSL rivals beared by FAS and a U28 team.

He can give whatever reasons but this show he does not take his words or promises seriously and is not worthy of being trusted.

Beyond that, back to the question of his commitment to any cause he spell out for last year in July, he told SPH paper TNP, in trying to dissipate the image he never gave S-league any attention, that he had worked on the S-league part of the Strategic Plan for the best part of two years.

My response - Two years!!! What can one really do in two years!!!

Way back in 2010, I already questioned the logic of the establishment in building the foundation for S-league.

One cannot achieved anything if one is intending to stick with any plan for just a few years and there is no better example than Stroke who I wrote about then.

The club, thanked to their Bet 365 owner, continue to build on their foundation while another BPL club Aston Villa is suffering as their American owner pulled back after just the first few years of extra funding.

Also as our FAS president is from PAP, can I question the government then as it is nearly 18 months since they formed the new government but they have not solved the transportation to housing problems etc

Of course I will be deemed as unreasonable as solution may take years and much of it will only be ready beyond the new General Election in 2016 and this showed how long one has to commit.

But I am not the person who is unreasonable, it is the leadership especially our current FAS head that is unreasonable as they continued to press for two to three years deadline for sports especially S-league.

At the same time, our FAS president do not have any rights to defend himself as whenever trouble struck he does his Houdini act.

In link five, I already talk about his disappearance after the cock up for Duric 300th goal celebration while in the first link, after the problems caused by Alam Shah comments, our leader was also nowhere in sight so whenever we need a leader he has shown he is not that man.

Yet nothing compared to 2011 in link three and four, after the anger caused by our FAS President words, he had to enlist the clubs chairman and our national coach Raddy who held one press conference after another to support him while he disappear without a trace.
 
However for that part of history, SPH paper reporter Gray Lim will claim he was a brave and bold leader for his action (Which is what as he was not around) so we can see why the sponsors like Yeo's and Courts rather go to MediaCorp than SPH.

Indeed if he was brave and bold then where was he for the deputy S-league CEO saga as let remember he was quoted by SPH paper Straits Times that he was the sole decision maker for the post of both S-league CEO and his deputy as he wanted to appoint both at the same time so S-league can take off immediately. 

If that the case why was it once there was trouble regarding the deputy the person to answer it was the newly appointed S-league CEO Mr Lim while a now familiar scene develop as our FAS President perform yet another Houdini act.

How can that be the action of a brave and bold leader!

The only time I see him around is where there is glory to be claimed for in July 2011 he was around for his Malaysia team for the whole week and in 2009 during the revelation of the Strategic Plan while other time (especially troubled times) it is his sacrificial lambs of FAS general-secretary Winston Lee or S-league CEO Mr Lim that appeared.

Thus as Zainudin Nordin leave we see four wasted years based on a big mouth, broken promises, Houdini acts and a glory-seeking leaderless leader who was somehow appointed in the first place.