BoLASEPaKO.com - A Blog on Singapore Football

Not that long ago, I tweet something like this: "Instead of 'sponsor', should we be looking for 'strategic partners' for #sleague and clubs?" And many of those replied said there ain't much different between the two, since both are the so-called financial providers or whatsoever. However, months back while attended the "Soccerex Asia" (pictured above where I met Romario there - see I was behind the legend!!), one of the panellists of one discussion group have this to say (if I remember correctly). "It is about finding the right partner in marketing your product and one can't simply blame everything on English Premiership for the inability for not able to do that." he said. I think the key word here he used was the word "partner" and not merely refer them as "sponsor". Having a brief thought about it from someone who is not trained as a marketing person, I come to this conclusion that to me a "sponsor"

I think many of you read what was written on The Straits Times today, eh? Nothing short of the usual woes we are facing in today's local football - the lack of quality players and standard, the lack of bonding between fans and clubs, the lack of familiarity of the teams and players, etc. So nothing new and this tells us we know what are the problems that we are all talking about here. And I think it's high time we should stop whine about these issues and get down to business to fix it, rather than talk over and over again. Now, do YOU know WHO YOU ARE in WHAT ROLE you are PLAYING? Perhaps, at a start one should log on to my fellow blogger Arief's blog, "Lions All The Way" which recently had he posted a series of entries titled "10 Things YOU Can do to Help Local Football!" as a guide on how you can help. Just to quote a line which caught my attention among the posts. "The day that Singapore football dies, is the day that the fans stop believing i

Introduction The TODAY's exclusive on the 16th of December ( 'S-League needs major surgery' ) seems to have triggered a wide range of discussions on the flaws in local football. A break from the past template of reviewing the events of the past year, I selected a few topics that caught my attention and blogged my thoughts on them instead... Screwed1 Did Home United mess up itself at the end of the day by allowing Shahril Ishak (pictured below) to leave at the most critical juncture of the season? Shahril Ishak's crowning as the "Player of the Year"  While every effort had been made to offer its former skipper a much-improved contract that would have seen the inspiring midfielder being the highest paid at the club, the Protectors were helpless, but to see its prized possession left for Indonesia. The absence of the national midfielder was in evidence as Home United's form took a beating following his departure. And after a few scary moments onl

The 3-0 scoreline of this friendly fixture played on the field at the Meridian Junior College in Pasir Ris shouldn't be raised too much a concern for both visiting Sabah FA (in white jersey) and newly-named Hougang United (in red-black striped outfit). After all, both teams are in the midst of their preparation for their upcoming season, but the only difference is the Malaysians are already several levels ahead of their Singapore counterparts in getting themselves ready. "We started our training session on 1st November and we had undergone some solid training for the past six to seven weeks." said the SabaHawks' Australian coach Gary Phillips after the match. "And I'm pleased with my team performance and would be glad if we can continue to play like this. "But it's still early days ahead with some fine-tuning to be going as this team will be facing a tougher challenge against big teams like Selangor, Kelantan."added the coach who guided the Nort

Today, this blog is featuring a new book - "Planeta do Futebol: do Brasil a fronteira afega"("Football Planet: from Brazil to Afghan" in English, pictured above) written Brazilian football journalist Renato Andreão Renato, as you can remember, was the kind gentleman who conducted my email interview with S.League legend Egmar Goncalves on my behalf, way back in January 2009. In this book, Renato had written 12 pages on Singapore football (pictured above) with transcripts from interviews he conducted with national coach Raddy Avramovic, SAFFC coach Richard Bok and players such as Ahmad Latiff Khamarudin, Noh Alam Shah, as well as input from former players such as S Subramani and ex-Home United coach Steve Darby. Wide range of topics were discussed in the Singapore section with topics such as players' views on the Lions' performance in the international tournaments, such as the Asian Cup qualifiers, the Suzuki Cup and what coach Darby demanded from Egmar in t

The New Paper gave a damning assessment on ISL-based Lions following Suzuki Cup exit . So it just don't really help much to go south, except for the bit of fake glamour, adulation, etc. Just as I mentioned a few months back, if all this is worth the while ? And below are some replies when I posted this snap on this blog's FB group . "I cant help but agree with their (TNP) assessment this time round... the defence pairing of Bai (Baihakki Khaizan) n Precious (Emuejeraye) was bad... Ridhuan (Muhamad) and NAS (Noh Alam Shah).... they really think that they are the "STAR" players...but their performance is nothing close to "star" quality....." Ong QZ, who seems to agree with what TNP mentioned "I think the media is going on a witch-hunt when they indirectly, should partake part of the blame. I think its boils down to the maturity of the Singapore players, we cant just blame the ISL for all the woes...example, look at the Indonesian te

Not that long ago, I got a SMS (in green font) from a friend of my that he shared with me his rating of the S.League since the inauguration in 1996... Attendances based on my memory 96 Tiger high, 96 Pioneer low, 97 average, 98 recession, 99 good, 00 average, 01 good but media coverage totally destroyed during SEA Games, 02 starting to have unusual results 03 penalty shootouts average N later died off 04 league reduced in teams, gd with jap albirex in, 05 gd with paya lebar in, young lions N balestier performed well, 06 young lions did well in FA Cup, sporting afrique some interest but fade away after payment issues, 07 tiger cup success, but liaoning destroyed it 08 poor 09 bad 10 worst I asked my friend if he would like to be quoted and acknowledged, he politely declined, but I thought this is something rather interesting and it's not those-kind-of-thesis-type of article as it's simple and hit the nail kind of review. Just a simple run through of what the whole SMS was about

The public anger is widely expected after the final whistle was blown (as pictured above - a screen grab after the match from "Kallangroar.com" ). Who could blame the fans for feeling that way, after all, in what it seen as the last hope to preserve that sense of "national prestige" after the loss of the three domestic titles to the foreign clubs, the Lions were knocked out of the biennial regional tournament by Vietnam and saw them qualified together with the unfancied Filipinos. From what I gathered according to SMSes I received from friends back home, the decisive strike was due to a quick counter off our corner and caught Hassan Sunny on "no man land" before the end of the first half. I felt I should not comment on the performance when I was not able to catch the game, due to pre-arranged circumstances. Nonetheless, the exit from the Suzuki Cup should probably seen as the BIGGEST setback for local football this year. And taking this opportunity, I woul

Dear Lions, All I would say is best of luck against the Vietnamese tonight at Hanoi. I know it's gonna be tough in front a full capacity My Dinh crowd, but I'm always a firm believer in raising to the occasion to silence those critics back home. Good Luck to you... From a follower of you guys - Po Hui (P.S: Due to some pre-arranged commitments, I'm not able to catch the game against Vietnam and I would be deeply appreciated if anyone of you guys who saw the match can update me the scores by leaving a comment below, thank you very much)

INTRODUCTION Ever since we are made known that Mediacorp Channel 5 decided to DELAY telecast, instead of LIVE telecast the crucial AFF Suzuki Cup tie between Singapore and Vietnam on the 8th of December, there are fans voiced their disappointment over the broadcaster's decision. While it was made known that the time-slot for "NEWS 5 TONIGHT" program being the reason for not being able to live telecast of the match. However, as avid Singapore football supporters, we sincerely hope the broadcaster can reconsider their decision and allow the thousands of fans out there to catch the game LIVE on the terrestrial channel. The desire of we, the fans, can be strongly felt on various feedback channels such as: "Twitter", "Facebook", etc. (as illustrated below) ON "FACEBOOK" Fans having posting appealing message on Mediacorp Channel 5's Facebook page to plead the broadcast to reconsider the decision. ON "TWITTER" As illustrated above,

Blogger Arief of " Lions All The Way "'s (pictured right holding the flag) screen grab on livestream as he and his friend celebrate the Lions' victory. Really don't know what to say as much as I hate say this Precious ineffectiveness was exposed right in the first minute. The failure to close down the cross from the flank came back to haunt the Lions again with the cheeky ball eluded the center defense and paid the price, of course Nothing really threatening up from Noh Alam Shah and Aleksandar Duric, as both of them failed to gather much support from those suppose to. So much so coach Raddy threw in Agu Casmir and Khairul Amri in the second half, by taking the Arema Malang duo of Alam Shah and Ridhuan Muhamad. The changes that made proved to be a master stroke from the Serbian tactician which many fans back home asking why both Agu and Amri were not started in the first place together with Shahdan Sulaiman? Agu repaid his faith by setting up the equalizer for Dur

(The message is brought to you by Ministry of Football , the company that is powered by Singapore’s only freestyle crew Urban Street Team ) The Ministry of Football (MOF) are organising an indoor under 16 street soccer tournament involving 32 teams at *Scape on 19 December 2010 . This will be the first of its kind in Singapore. which the organizers will be looking at these 5 main factors namely Fairplay , Sportsmanship , Skills , Technique & Goals in the game and the rules will be explained clearly before the tournament. The event will also include performances and we aim to have a carnival atmosphere. CLICK ON THESE FOLLOWING IMAGES FOR TOURNAMENT INFORMATION, REGISTRATION & WAIVER/RELEASE OF LIABILITY FORMS (Print out if necessary and contact details are listed on the images) TOURNAMENT INFORMATION REGISTRATION FORM WAIVER/RELEASE OF LIABILITY FORM About "Ministry of Football" The formation of the company was primarily to cater for the expansions of services provis

Catch the match on livestreaming instead on Channel 5 Singapore 1-1 The Philippines So "first match jittery" does happen whenever we play our first game in any major tournament. Clearly labelled by many as the clear favourites against the Filipinos, who prior to the opener was thrashed 8-0 by Thai club side Nakhon Pathom, thus it's no wonder the expectation back at home is high as the mood can be sensed in the recent days on the social media platforms. The lack of the killer-touch upfront is the cause of concern and had to wait until approximately 60th minute to take the lead through Aleksandar Duric, despite having our chances for large part of the game. While the acres of space that left behind for the Filipinos to graze in their counters should be noted down as well, with perhaps to the killing punch was the lack of marshalling on the right that eventually led to the equalizer.. Damn...