BoLASEPaKO.com - A Blog on Singapore Football

The building up to the new season hardly inspired and everything just looks like damp squib that no one seems to be looking forward to the 2019 campaign. JUST SOME LAME EXCUSES BY SOME  Is it because of the continuing domination by a mainly youth-based Albirex Niigata (Singapore) in recent years which is being used as an excuse by some to extend their boycott by not coming to games with a number of them are making hell lot of noise on the lack of glamour in the league? But when these people choose to stay away and let the terraces become a white elephant, how are we going to convince players of certain quality to come and play in our league? It is just that some out there chosen to be blinded by what they heard and read based on "first impression last"? Our clubs were overwhelmed by the clubs across the bridge in preseason Or is it nothing newsworthy of late to generate awareness to fire people's imagination? Somehow or rather, the recent domination of the Wh

I don't feel sorry or have kind words to say about the recent ground sharing move that will see only four (local) venues being used for the upcoming Singapore Premier League (SGPL) season. Why should I or rather we feel sorry to see clubs uprooted from their "roots" to find themselves sharing grounds with their contemporaries in a struggling league system plagued with so many woes that don't seems to have any remedy formula to cure them all? Toa Payoh Stadium will not be used in the 2019 SGPL season When our own professional football league was launched in 1996, one of the key emphasizes is community outreach by having clubs based strategically around the island in order to see themselves fused into the vicinities they were based. But two decades down the road since it started, it seems to me that most clubs are still aliens to where they are based and we hardly see the bonding between the clubs and residents (not fans) like how I asked a co-worker of mine i

I thought one of the good initiatives of the rebranded Singapore Premier League (SGPL) is to allow fans to buy their match tickets online, which is a laudable move as it is a practice in tandem with many other sporting events held in Singapore. However, I wish to highlight matters pertaining to those tickets, which are now printed on better quality material, bought on match days at the game venues. After a few rounds of matches, it is regrettable tickets purchased over the counter not longer detailed those match information except these words, as shown in the picture below. The "22/7/18" match saw Albirex Niigata (S) clinched the SGPL title No one seems to be able to give an answer when I asked causally why the changes were made. As one may never know these ticket stubs, which were usually discarded by many after games, may be an important testament to something significant that happened during that particular match. I, myself, still have those match ticket stu

Michel Sablon will leave FAS on 31st December 2018 Honestly, whether Michel Sablon's blueprint devised for the local football will work? Only time will tell and it is too quick to pass any judgment when the seeds were just sown after the land had just cleared for recultivation. While many fans seems to judge the Belgian's performance based on the less glamorous results achieved by various national teams in recent years, let us not forget the job scope of that of the technical director and the coach are two entirely different scopes. One is to formulate and layout the technical aspects of the game development, the other is to coach and achieve results on the field. Sablon gave a presentation on his blueprint Said local football observer Gary Koh: "We can only see in a few years whether Michel Sablon is a slight improvement (as compared to his predecessor Slobodan Pavkovic ) or otherwise. "But definitely never at the level of what he was p

It would be kind of funny to read an article on the papers these days that lauded the achievements of local football, given the present state of the game in this country. Nevertheless, one such article did herald the achievements of the local game way back in 1950 when "Nanyang Siang Pau" (南洋商報), one of the main Chinese newspapers in those colonial days, declared "1950 is the Year of Singapore Football" on one of their back pages of their 12th of November edition. "1950 is the Year of Singapore Football" said Nanyang Siang Pau ( NLB archives ) Written by someone under the pseudonym of "流星" or "Meteoroid" in English, the opening statement attributed the significance of that year after teams represented Singapore did well in those tournaments they participated like the Singapore Malays won the Sultan Gold Cup, the Indians players took the Bardhan Cup and also the biggest prize of all - the Malaya Cup by the formidable

Nowadays, there is nothing wrong when we think of any player who doesn't perform in the modern game by labelled him being “unprofessional”. However, it was a different thing back in the old days, when the word "professional" was TABOO. Simply because players in those days were strictly amateur (as featured in the movie " Kallang Roar ") and any form of engagement with monetary reward was strictly prohibited. I was told by a former national player from that era how he was implicated when a boot manufacturer used his name without his knowledge in an advertisement that almost jeopardized his place in the national team. AFC's Teoh claimed Quah Kim Song "is a professional" in 1977 (NLB archives) Another player from that era almost saw his place in the national team gone when he was alleged to break the code of conduct as an amateur by an official of the game's continental governing body months before the South East Asia (SEA) Games.

"Thanks for coming." said one of the staffers whom I met at the end of a press conference I attended some times ago. While it is always a pleasantry to receive such a greeting but for that particular time, I found it awkward or rather uneasy to receive such acknowledgment. Usually, the press conference of that nature would see a decent turnout from the media to cover the event, whereas it was not the case when I was there and I could easily count the number of those reporters who were there. To make things more intriguing was the absence of representation from several notable players of the field to cover the announcement which they usually would. If this is going to be the typical scene in the subsequent weeks to come, it should be something of a concern to local football officials for such a lukewarm response from the media, especially of those from the big players. MEDIA RESTRUCTURING The recent restructuring of both MediaCorp (source: 1 , 2 ) and Si

(P.S: If you access this site via "come.to/matchpix", please click the "Facebook" icon after you click "HERE" when you want to view the album as that will redirect you to the album, thank you) ABL - Slingers vs Formosa Dreamers 110218 "黑人"posed with fans It was an ASEAN Basketball League match full of errors that eventually saw the hosts Singapore Slingers walked away with a 72-65 win over the cellar dwellers Formosa Dreamers 寶島夢想家. Taiwanese celebrity "黑人" 陳建州's presence at the courtside added much glamour to the game and saw the Dreamers GM had a impromptu "meet-the-fan-session" before and after the match. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES ABL - Slingers vs Chongson Kungfu 040318 Former Slingers star Justin Howard (55) up against Chris Charles What amazed me was the fact that Chongson arrived at this ASEAN Basketball League game with only seven players to rotate throughout the

If the rebranding of S.League as Singapore Premier League (SGPL) is being seen as a litmus test for the current Football Association of Singapore (FAS) Council, it would mean there is little confidence in them from the general public. Right after the unveiling of this worst kept secret of Singapore football days ago, a barrage of skepticism was hurled from all corners on the Republic's only professional sporting competition, labelled it nothing more than just cosmetic makeover than attempt to eradicate the root problems once and for all. "They are just trying to bury the ghost, without realizing that soil can’t keep the spirit out of its tomb," said a former FAS official who declined to be named when sharing his thoughts on this rebranding exercise with this blogger via text. He added: "Instead of fixing something that’s broken, they give it a new coat of paint and call it new." on the changes such as the name of the competition which many fans opined the

RIP S.League, Hello Singapore Premier League Many don't understand why the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) decided to delay the announcement of the new name for the "League", when it was already the worst kept secret in the fraternity in recent weeks. FAS council member S Thavaneson once  remarked in last December "they don't rule out the 'possibility' of it ..." after prior official press releases did not mention the term "S.League" but labelled the tournament as "Singapore’s domestic professional league", Subsequent weeks following those words by the Balestier Khalsa chairman, several social media updates, seen by this blogger, posted by various individuals in the scene suggested the change of name was imminent. One club even had to retract a Facebook posting which imprinted the name "Singapore Premier League" (SGPL) after it was posted by mistake before the official announcement was made, FAS di

Can the "Kallang Roar" return to National Stadium Will the three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Football Association of Singapore (FAS) and SportsHub Pte Ltd , the operators of Singapore Sports Hub, signed days ago set the pace to see the much-awaited revival of the Merlion Cup in the local football calendar? FUTILE ATTEMPTS TO REVIVE In the recent years, futile attempts were made to revive the invitational tournament, last staged in 2009 as an one-off fixture when English side Liverpool were featured against the Singapore national team, in the iconic 55,000-capacity National Stadium. The well-documented spat back in late 2015 between SportsHub and MP & Silva, FAS commercial and media rights partner, over the venue rental costs eventually had the plan shelved indefinitely after talks between both parties broke down. Reason why FAS did not organize Merlion Cup in 1987 (source: NST ) Since the reopening of the National Stadium in mid

(P.S: If you access this site via "come.to/matchpix", please click the "Facebook" icon after you click "HERE" when you want to view the album as that will redirect you to the album, thank you) ABL - Slingers vs Alab Pilipinas 070118 Alab's Renaldo Balkman (34) met with some Slingers' resistance The first basketball compilation of the year saw Singapore Slingers lost 80-89 (after OT) to Alab Pilipinas at the OCBC Arena in this exciting ASEAN Basketball League fixture. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES ABL - Slingers vs Mono Vampire 190118 Mono's Samuel Deguara (orange top) tried to force his way past Slingers' Chris Charles Singapore Slingers' mini renaissance of late in their ongoing ASEAN Basketball League campaign came to an abruptly end with a 88-91 defeat to Mono Vampire Basketball Club at the OCBC Arena of Singapore Sports Hub. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES

DPMM will continue their involvement (file snap) The participation of Brunei DPMM in the S.League has been under much scrutiny following revelations in recent media reports that the Sultanate's professional club was mulling a withdrawal from the Republic's setup to take part in leagues in either Malaysia or Indonesia. However, updates posted on the team's official website suggested that they had changed their mind and will continue their involvement in the Singapore domestic football scene which they did since 2004 when the Wasps (the nickname of DPMM) were first featured in the Singapore Cup tournament. On the same page of the aforementioned site, it was also made known, as quoted below. AFTER THE S-LEAGUE HAVE DECIDED TO ALLOW DPMM ON 4 IMPORT PLAYERS,THEY NOW DECIDED ON HAVING ANOTHER DISCUSSION ON THE FOREIGN PLAYERS FOR DPMM. The notion was further confirmed when the newly-appointed DPMM coach Rene Weber revealed in an article reported by BruSports News,

To be honest, when "Team LKT" and their allies were sworn in as the new Football Association of Singapore (FAS) Council - the highest decision-making organ of the game's local governing body, this blogger wondered if those voting delegates ever regretted their decisions after witnessed what was unfolded subsequently following that controversial landmark election? HISTORICAL BAGGAGE ... Banking on the experiences of those who served in the past councils and despite the "historical baggage" embedded in them, the team headed by lawyer Lim Kia Tong, who convinced some of their fiercest critics to join their camp , crushed their challengers - "FAS Game Changers" convincingly to take office. Can Lim Kia Tong and his council bring the faith back to Singapore Football? However, little time was given to these newly-elected office bearers to acclimatize their roles, the new Council soon realised it is going to be a tough battle to pull the beleaguered sp