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[Telegram Chat] - BUCK UP OR SHIP OUT (AGAIN)!

The poor performance of Jaguars cannot be tolerated. It is such an appalling sight to see the recent performance of the once-mighty Tanjong Pagar United . Put it bluntly, do the Jaguars still remember they are playing in the top-tier league of this country? One may be forgiven if you occupy the last spot of the ladder, but one cannot be forgiven if efforts on the field failed to convince the others of your determination to turn things around. It was not hard for the critics to come after them again after the recent 6-0 loss to Hougang United , their nearest rivals on the ladder prior to the 1st November fixture. As the league heads for a long recess after this week, Tanjong Pagar United remain the only team in the nine-team league to accumulate single-digit points (8) with only two wins, two draws, and fourteen defeats in the ninth spot. The eighth-placed Young Lions (at the time of writing) already collected 18 points out of the 17 games played. Any layman could easily tell some of th
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[Telegram Chat] - STADIUM SHORTAGE HAMPERS SPL CLUBS' COMMUNITY TIES

Bedok Stadium - former home of Geylang International  The Singapore Premier League (SPL) faces significant challenges due to the limited availability of dedicated stadiums for its clubs. As the stadiums used for SPL matches are also shared by age-group competitions and lower-tier leagues (with some Island Wide League matches scheduled at school fields), this inevitably causes wear and tear on the playing surfaces, which could endanger players' safety and impact the quality of play, making it difficult to maintain competitive standards. Following the uprooting of some clubs from the stadiums where they were once based, it has become increasingly difficult for these SPL clubs to conduct meaningful community outreach within the localities they are meant to identify with. For instance, Geylang International, which used to call Bedok Stadium home until the end of the 2018 season, now plays at Jalan Besar Stadium while their designated home ground at Our Tampines Hub undergoes repairi

[Telegram Chat] - LIONS LEARN HARD LESSONS IN JAPAN FRIENDLIES

Lions Head Coach Tsutomu Ogura The Singapore national team wrapped up their training camp in Japan with one win and two defeats to the J1 clubs they sparred with. Apart from the 2-1 victory over Tokyo Verdy, the club where Lions coach Tsutomo Ogura worked as assistant manager prior to his appointment to the current role in early February, the four-time Asean champions succumbed to heavy losses to FC Tokyo (4-0) and Yokohama F. Marinos (7-1). PREPARING FOR THE AFF MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CUP The motive of the camp is to gear the team up for the upcoming AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup , which is scheduled to commence on 8 December. The outcome of these friendlies should not be surprising, given the wide gulf in footballing standards between the Republic and Asia's number one. REALITY CHECK FOR THE LIONS This notion was fittingly expressed by Coach Ogura in his assessment with The Straits Times when he told the broadsheet: "Before this, they (Singapore) had a feeling of how big the g

[Telegram Chat] - WHY NOT HAVE A "ROUND-ROBIN" FOR LCC INSTEAD?

The Lion City Cup Trophy  I will not comment on the performance of the team that represented Singapore in the recently concluded Lion City Cup (LCC) tournament, as I did not watch any of the four matches played in the competition that helped to inspire the creation of the FIFA U16 World Cup in 1985. I remembered the first LCC I watched was the 1991 edition in which the final I witnessed an impressive Myanmar U16 defeated their Singapore counterparts at the Toa Payoh Stadium which was packed to the rafters. I witnessed a Singapore victory years later when they beat Hong Kong 1-0 at the old Jalan Besar Stadium in 1995. The blogger took part in the 2011 LCC draw (picture credit: Red Card) I had the honour to draw Juventus U16 squad to Group A which comprised of their Newcastle United counterparts and the Singapore U15 squad in the 2011 tournament (as pictured above). Since 2015, including the recent editions of 2023 and the recently concluded tournament won by J1 League club Tokyo Ve

"Cooperative" Model For SPL Club?

Can "co-op" club concept works in Singapore? (AI generated image) Back in 2021, one article  by "SoccerKakis" discussed a few business models that Singapore Premier League (SPL) clubs could follow should the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) decide to privatise the league. Some models cited in the abovementioned article included those used by some leading European clubs, the MLS (Major League Soccer), and the nearby Liga Super Malaysia. COOPERATIVE MODEL SUGGESTION Soon after I shared this article on the Facebook Page of this platform, there was this suggestion of having the SPL clubs operate using the "cooperative" model . It got me thinking about the possibility of "co-op" the clubs when except for privately owned Lion City Sailors (LCS) which is registered as private limited with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), the other clubs in SPL (except Young Lions and Brunei DPMM) are registered as "society"