BoLASEPaKO.COM - A Blog on Singapore Football

Bishan Stadium is under the re-turfing process This is the current condition of the field of Bishan Stadium, the designated "home" ground of two Singapore Premier League (SGPL) clubs - Lion City Sailors and Balestier Khalsa, as seen from the nearby Bishan Sports Hall days ago. It was learned that such re-turfing of the natural grass surface would take approximately five to six months to complete and the process began late last year. NEW SEASON K.O. IN LATE FEB One recent Straits Times article suggested the Community Shield, the annual pre-season opener for the SGPL, will be staged on 20th February. If it is what the mentioned broadsheet suggested, the 2021 SGPL season is likely to kick off on the following weekend based on past scheduling of fixtures. However, given the present condition of the Bishan surface, it is understood Balestier Khalsa will play their home fixtures at Toa Payoh Stadium while LCS will be ground sharing the newly-refurbished Jalan Besar Stadium (JBS) w...

Called it an obsession or mere British influence when it is not uncommon in this part of the world to name a football club as whatsoever "United". Just look around the region, you already have Buriram United, Bangkok United, and Muangthong United in Thailand where national custodian Hassan Sunny used to play for the dissolved Army United . Down south in Malaysia, there is a team rebranded as Kuala Lumpur United which is formerly known as Kuala Lumpur FA - the team that once boasted the likes of the Singapore triumvirate of Fandi Ahmad, Malek Awab, and K Kanan in their 1980s heydays. BRITISH INFLUENCE RESULTED IN "UNITED" EVERYWHERE? On the other end of the Causeway in Singapore, names like Farrer Park United and Toa Payoh United were some of those listed in the then-newly formed National Football League (NFL) in the mid-1970s. Moving into the mid-1990s, these were the names to mark the start of the professional era like Geylang United (which later changed to G...