S-League Insight: FAS fails to learn from past mistakes
February 23rd, 2010 | 
Author: By MJ (S-League correspondent)
The 2010 S-League season has kicked off with two new foreign clubs in the fold, Etoile FC and Beijing Guoan (the latter styled as Beijing Guoan Talent FC).
The inclusion of the new clubs, especially Beijing Guoan Talent, has been hotly debated in the local football fraternity, as the FAS has omitted Yishun Reds in the process (a local club converted from Super Reds).
Many supporters of the local league have bemoaned the admission of yet another Chinese club as more local footballers are deprived of the opportunity to play in the S-League and hence the chance to play professional football.
To date, the track records of Chinese clubs in the S-League have been unimpressive, to say the least. Beijing Guoan’s predecessors – Sinchi FC, Dalian Shide Siwu FC and Liaoning Guangyuan FC – have all failed to provide a respectable challenge to the local sides and all of them had finished in the bottom half of the league.
China’s own domestic league (Chinese Super League) has been plagued with match-fixing scandals which they had struggled to eradicate over time. Recently, two Chinese clubs were relegated by the FA after investigations revealed that they had bribed oppositions.[1] Observers noted that this incident is by no means isolated and may be just the tip of the iceberg of a massive problem in Chinese domestic football.
This attitude of tolerance to match-fixing had spilled over to the S-League as several players and officials of Liaoning Guangyuan FC were charged and jailed after allegations of match-fixing surfaced in 2008.
There is no suggestion here that Beijing Guoan Talent FC’s parent club is corrupted, but the link is undeniable.
Beijing Guoan Talent are three matches into their maiden campaign and over 300 minutes of football, they had shown nothing on the pitch to suggest that they can live up to their management’s promise of good football before the campaign had started[2].
They only have earned a point from a goalless draw with Woodlands Wellington FC and lost their season opener with fellow debutant Etoile FC to a single late goal. They have also been knocked out of the Singapore League Cup by perennial underdogs Sengkang Punggol.
The bulk of their squad consists of players below the age of 21. To the parent club, this is just a reserve league to help their young players obtain some playing time. How can these young and inexperienced players be expected to provide a strong challenge to the local sides? When fatigue and homesickness kicks in as the season progresses, expect poorer performances from this side.
On the other hand, FAS may have a wider political agenda to include a Chinese team in the league to attract the large number of PRC immigrants here. What they had failed to realise is that football is never that popular a sport in China and domestic football hardly gets a mention in the Chinese media. As the first few Beijing Guoan Talent games had proven, large crowd of Chinese fans waving the PRC flag did not turn up at the stadia to back “their” team.
The FAS has made another poor decision in choosing Beijing Guoan Talent FC. The S-League is a local league and it should be provide local football players with the platform to play at the highest level possible. There is a danger here of the S-League becoming a feeder league to another domestic league.
There are a lot of reasons not to include this Chinese side and FAS seemed to have missed them all. Let us not forget that there are still several defunct ex-S-League sides (including Sembawang Rangers and Tanjong Pagar United) still waiting for financial support to make a return but they had been widely ignored by FAS.
About the author – MJ has watched more S-League games than anyone he knows and hopes to see it blossom into one of the strongest leagues in the region. He is however annoyed by the lack coverage in the mainstream media and hopes to be the alternative voice
[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8527889.stm
[2] http://www.todayonline.com/Sports/EDC100119-0000084/Beijing-Guoan-start-with-a-clean-slate,-say-FAS
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”What they had failed to realise is that football is never that popular a sport in China and domestic football hardly gets a mention in the Chinese media”
excuse me , but when i was in china , many people all talk about EPL and La Liga .yes , they dont like to play , but still embrace it .
S league is not so important to Singaporean compared to premier and champion league.
How much can a S league footballer earns? I rather my sons become the prime minister, at least they can earn as much as some of the premier league players. If the prime minister seat is taken at least they can try to be the president. When they become older, they can also become minister mentor. Continue to earn money up to ninety years old and beyond. Soccer player must retire once their leg become wobbly or latest at the age 40. When become Minister Mentor, one don’t have to run and just relax sit back and forecast that is good enough.
Forget about S league, with Rooney playing who would want to see.
@bear – I think the point the author was making was more about domestic Chinese football.
To promote local football, u really have to cut down on coverage of all the foreign leagues on TV and on the media…
Imagine if all foreign football is banned on TV here, no reports in the papers, ban soccernet, football365 etc…
soon we will have more pple watching local football
ok maybe not tt extreme…
how about paying over the hill to attract big names?
the J-league is doing it, I’m sure we can too…
imagine Ronaldo (the fat one) playing in Singapore after his contract with Corinthians expire
reposting cos my last entry was lost.
in a gist, less coverage for european leagues…
pay for big names to come singapore
at least some names pple have heard of
get ex-big names to promote local football
3rd posting, d@mn pissed at this site now, last 2 entries din go thru…
in a gist, i’m pro local soccer and wud like to see more of it…
less coverage for european football
more coverage of local footballers
local footballers need packaging and more publicity and be ambassadors, go ard neighbourhoods or go on tv often to get exposure
pay for big names to play in singapore
pay for ex-big names to come singapore to promote local football, esp in schools
strange my last 2 comments din show tt they were awaiting moderation!!! they just went missing when i clicked on submit!!
I really believe that politics have killed Singapore football. When we were in the Malaysian Cup, every true-blue Singapore would fight to get a ticket to watch the game at Kallang & even travel to Malaysia for the away games. The national team united the spirit & passion of all locals & even the kopitiam Ah Peks would gather together & cheer for the Lions. The love for the game had rubbed onto the local teams & I am a big supporter of Farrar Park United & would watch them play occasionally. I could name the players from David Lee to Fandi Ahmad & I am sure many of you could do that too.
But alas, just after 10 years or so into the S League, all the passion is gone. Nobody is bothered about who is playing who & I dont know who are the national players. Remember when Liverpool came & play our national team? Kallang was a sea of RED & maybe some crazy fans were even dressed as Man Utd supporters!! But how many locals went as Lions supporters? What happened to Woody’s WC2010 & what really happened to our love for the game? It went out of the window when Marlboro Tan decided politics are good for football!! I just hope the next person that gonna win an Olympic medal has a name of Tan, Johari, Raju or Fernandez & not some Li, Hartono or Smith!!
Foot ball in Singapore will never be the same as the days of Malaysia’s Cup! In those days hardcore fans like us will follow our home team to all parts of Malaysia to support and to cheer!
Football today in Singapore is only for light entertainment,
to see 22 players running about in the field and most of the time performing Thai boxing,when we have nothing better to watch!
It’s more than a decade that our S-league have been around.
What have they achieved and what improvement have they shown in terms of quality and attendance??
In every match there are only a mere 2 to 3 thousands spectators and the organisors have to put up hugh banners to cover up all the empty seats in order to make it more presentable on live TV coverage!
We do not have a large base of football fans in Singapore.
All the fans are spread out.That’s why the numbers are almost quite constant in every match.
The football culture is not there. Look at the excuse for not securing the live TV coverage for world cup 2010! When
209 countries around the world have already secured their rights to telecast live matches, we, a first world city, is left high and dry? Why?? Because we always think in terms of $$$$!!!
Football in Singapore will never improve beyond what is was more than 10 years ago and what it is today!!
In other words,football in Singapore is KAPUT!!
similar to our “foreign talent” policy. opting for short-term profits ahead of quality
a place in world cup final 2010? haha, was it a goal? a vision? a mission? a forecast, a prophecy? a day dream from our elite govt? this is only one of the example. they thought by splashing money to provide the best ‘hardware’ they could achieve everyhting they want. they still didn’t get it. besides this world cup day dream, they wanted to build so many Hub to compete on the world stage. tell us how many world class brand name, product, invention we have on the world stage? Keppel? semcorp? capitaland? singtel? let’s be honest, there is only one world best here, the world best salary of govt.
Have the same feeling about the inclusion of Beijing GuoAn in this year S-League becos of political reason. But I’m not so against of such inclusion of foreign teams in the league. However, FAS needs to learn from mistake and admit quality foreign teams like Albriex; the new French team look not bad watch them on TV with pretty good passing and ball skills.
Beside FAS does it part, I think the native Singaporeans should also play a larger role in local soccer. I find it funny the so-call diehard fans claiming he/she has been supporting a team thousand km away since secondary sch days. So far the National Team under coach Raddy have performed reasonably well and hopefully we can beat Jordan in the last game, and proceed to next yr Asia Cup Finals.
It really very sad to attend some of the Lions matches with half-heartened crowds (I use the word crowds not fans) cheering only when goals are been scored. How do you expect a full-strength England team playing at home with half-heartened crowds) to win comfortably against teams like Brazil or even minnow Faros Island?
The current state of Singapore soccer not so bad with rooms of improvement… We can’t put the entire blame on FAS alone, local football fans too!
I was at the Natl Stadium for the Sleague opening ceremony in 96. I’ve lived in Yishun since I was 7 and watched a few of the old Sembawang Rangers game at Yishun Stadium. Now Yishun Stadium is home to the Beijing Guoan team. If you go past the stadium you’ll be able to see the Beijing Guoan team name and logo at the entrance. Since when Yishun became Beijing manzzz…
Every year when the S-league season ends, there are lots of talks about improveing the format, the style, the standard,
and what have you!! At the end, when the season starts there are not much of a difference,except old teams being kicked out and one or two new foreign teams being added!
The standard remains almost the same,our home team never got to go beyond the SEA games confine.It has been more than 10 years and this state of sad affairs has not improved! So how then you expect the die-hard fans to keep on tolerating this type of performance?
The situation is made worse when we have the EPL, European cup,and other league matches being broadcasted live! The comparation of the standards are miles apart!!
Also, one one hand, we are talking about promoting football at the national level, when we can’t even bring in the live
coverage of the most important foot ball event of the football calendar!!Where is the logic?? Why spend so much
funds trying to promote a certain sport,and when the opportunity arises to boost the sport, they tell you that it’s a “commercial” decision for not being able to telecast
live matches for the WC2010!!
Isn’t the money spent in the first instance gone to waste??
Nor wonder the number of football fans are getting smaller and smaller!!
i feel that to improve the standard of the S-league and to increase the attendances, the S-league will need to engage the locals a bit more. The locals will need to feel for the team like how they support Liverpool/Man Utd for them to want to go to the stadiums to catch their favourite teams and players play. It is by no means an easy process and might take years, but it probably will have to start somewhere. Organising more events with the locals like letting fans join in their training sessions, organising more events in the town where they are based to gain more exposure will help people get to know them better. Having foreign teams or marquee signings can only generate short term interest in the league. Any one still remember the name of emile mbouh mbouh? It’s good to have a few foreign teams and some star players, but end of the day, that is not going to solve the problem.
Funny how what goes around comes around. Singapore was kicked out of the Malaysian league & cup ‘cos of the massive corruption and match-fixing scandals believed to have originated in large parts from Singaporean bookies. Anyone who remembers that last season should know that Singapore were strong favourites to lose (based on form) but ended up beating Pahang 4-0 in the final (or something like that) – aroused too many suspicions – the bookies made a killing. S-league is a joke. The M-league is not much better, but at least they don’t import players to represent the national team. Seriously, a bit malu to see someone up there representing Singapore when you know they’re just a sports mecenary.
Local sports will never be a priority to the government. Look at the sports hub, the bloody national stadium is still standing for goodness sake, it was supposed to be completed in 2010, then 2013 now around 2015. Local sports now just like declining birth rate. Government buy FTs to make us look good, not bothering to nurture us. I won’t be suprised if the sports school will become a PRC school one day…
The inclusion of another young Chinese team is to spot young Chinese players to be future Singapore citizens, playing for our national team in 2015 and beyond…..(Remember FIFA inpose a 5 year stay for new citizen to represent his new country)….
When I go to S-League games I see mostly familiar faces attending the games. The thing is these people are not fans or supporters of any particular clubs, they are punters who bet on the games with Singapore Pools.
I do not think that the S-League’s standard is lower than when we were in the Malaysia League but why is it so that fans will come out in full force for every home game that Singapore play back then and no one actually bothers to watch S-League anymore now?
MJ wrote: “why is it so that fans will come out in full force for every home game that Singapore play back then and no one actually bothers to watch S-League anymore now?”
Simple. Singapore vs Johor or Selangor stirs up emotions that recall the days when Singapore & Malaysia wre more similar than different. All the teams in the S-league are made up, with no real history behind them. And Singapore is too small for fans to have any allegiance to one particular area.
i agree with Nav, but somehow we have to start somewhere. There are other countries which has smaller populations and not with a long history, but still have higher attendances for their domestic league (e.g. Malta which has a population of just 500,000 and is ranked 144th in the world, 24 spots lower than Singapore). With the S-league’s constant chopping and changing of the teams, it is hard for any fan to start having any allegiance to any teams.. sounds ironically a little bit like the PAP’s constant changing of the boundaries for the different GRCs and single wards..
All clubs in the world are made up. All clubs in the world starts with no history.
If so, why is it that the national team do not get the support also whenever they play?
@Nav
I agree that tampines VS balestier hardly invokes any us vs them kind of emotions, but because of what we are as a country, we have to make do with what we have.
You sound like a football fan in general, so pls give S-League and our national team a chance?
@MJ: i think ven having punters at the stadiums is not a bad thing, at least they turn up!!
@XXX & ZZZ: I think one reason why the Malaysia cup generated so much interest is because of the close rivalry between our country and the onesup north. When u play as a country, there is national pride involved. That’s why when you see Singapore playing against Malaysia or any other SEA ntation, the National stadium is usually a sold out.
A few reasons I think the S-League is not prospering based on my own experiences:
1) I think the S-League teams do not engage the community enough as a whole. I think the S-League teams should engage people in their neighbourhood more. They are not familiar figures in the neighbourhood, they should make use of activities in the neighbourhoods or community clubs to raise their profiles.
2) Too many foreign teams. Honestly, I think the standard of local football has increased tremendously over the years. Is the real reason behind getting foreign teams to improve the standard? Or issit becos local teams cannot afford the money anymore? Foreign teams are like mercenaries to me. Unless if you say that they are crowd pullers, then i agree tt they should be included. Maybe the China team is here to draw PRC nationals to the stadiums. But are these pple passionate about football in the 1st place?
3) I very much want to catch the local games but games on a midweek simply are impossible for me. Ok my situation is a little unique so i’m busy but I know for certain many pple work late too. Look at the major european leagues. Midweek games also suffer drop in attendances. It’s the same here. People are just too busy on weekdays.
4) Now comes the weekends. Come on, people here, esp the young lads grow up on European football, not Fandi Ahmad. Do you really expect them to give up watching Rooney Gerrard play and watch Duric or Shi Jiayi? Schedule the games too early and it will be too hot. Watch S-League then rush home for more football on TV? Think that will be an overdose. A ban on the european leagues on TV is not very likely as well. The best way I can tink of is to show delayed telecast of games only and not live, so that people can catch the S-League games. A long shot and I’m not sure what kind of backlash there will be. I think even some of my frens will lambast me even for suggesting this. But perhaps a good start will be to ban the early Premier League games on TV. That will just be one game off the scedule but it might help to a certain extent…. I don’t tink anyone will flood the stadiums for an S-League match if Man U – Liverpool kick off at 7.45 or 8.45 pm.
Hi Kok,
I think, nowadays, there are just too FTs around’ from telemarketeers to sportsmen. Seems like everyone is a Li Li or Wang Wang! It just couldnt get my heart racing like good old Malek or Kim Song or Judy Sng!
MJ,
S-League clubs have such a short history (and it takes time to build a distinct identity) and hence it’s hard to draw crowds. And remember what Nav said about Singapore being so small that it is hard to have alleigance to 1 small area in a city.
The national team can draw huge crowds because it is an international team representing a country and Singapore has a few million in population. Isn’t it easier for you to identify with Singapore rather than say Tampines? And a place like Tampines or Woodlands have probably at most a population of over 100,000. For me, up to 12 years old, I was living in Taman Jurong. And from 13 to 20 I was living in West Coast. From 20 to 30 (now) I am living in Jurong West. These days I watch Gombak games since the stadium is just across the road and I like Gombak because they are a small club with tight budget but yet they have performed very well. But I wouldn’t call myself a fan of Gombak (someone who religously follow the club’s happenings and attend every game) yet. I like SAFFC and Home coz they play better football. I like the Young Lions coz they are the future of the national team and sometimes they play their hearts out. So up to now, I haven’t really settled down on a local club. See the dilemma?
In other countries the clubs would be in different cities. And these cities have their own distinct culture/history and people in different cities would even have different accents. The further apart the cities are in the country, the more different their cultures are. All these differences creates identities among the people from their respective regions.
Having said that, it is not impossible for fans to have alleigance to 1 area in a city. Look at how many football clubs London has. Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, West Ham & Fulham are examples of EPL clubs in London. Clubs from other division includes Watford, Crystal Palace, QPR, Wimbledon. For the clubs at the infant stage to create their own identity and form a strong fan base is a very tough job especially in Singapore when so many are complaining the standards of the local league.
I think 1 of the long term viable solutions is to engage school children when their minds are still open instead of the older fans who are constantly and unfairly comparing EPL with S-League or who are only concerned about winning their bets.
Though many people in Singapore are sceptical of the S-League, there is an occassional glimmer of hope when we see people spending so much time and effort working for their local clubs. And we have to applaud people like Charlie Yoon whose plan was to convert his Super Reds team into a local club.
Alas, the FAS dealt a cruel blow to Charlie Yoon even after he has shown Singapore for the last few years how much time, money and effort he has spent on Super Reds. People in Singapore (fans and people like Charlie who have the ambition and courage to form a local team) who are passionate about football as well as the local league will only be further discourgaed by the actions of FAS.
What I could not understand is, Charlie Yoon has proven what he is capable of contributing to the S-League. The 2 new foreign teams have only proven on paper. So which team would convince you more? A team who has proven their credentials or a team who has only shown on paper?? A new local club would certainly increase opportunities for local players and would certainly contribute in supplying talented players for the national team. A new local club would also give hope to people who have a passion for local football.
In a way, this by the FAS is a step backwards.
@Sean
Very valid points you have there.
From what I know of London clubs is that people tend to “pick” a club at a very yound age and that may not be based on location. I have friends who are born and bred in London but they support Liverpool / United etc, because of family or just for liking the style of football.
Totally agree with you on your point on Charlie Yoon. Which is the purpose of this article and a few more in the future. No one seems to be telling stories from the other side of the fence elsewhere.