BoLASEPaKO.com - A Blog on Singapore Football

Best view in the house at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium Being an avid baseball fan too, I headed to Taiwan, a popular tourist destination for many Singaporeans, to catch my favourite baseball team - Chinatrust Brothers (CT Bros, 中信兄弟) in action for the past six years. It was something I never expected in my recent trip when I was offered an opportunity to join my Taiwanese friends in a hospitality event hosted by CT Bros at one of their home games in Taichung weeks ago. EXCLUSIVELY FOR THE FANS... From what I gathered, the hospitality event is exclusively for fans (and their guests) who are members of the team's official fan club. Besides quality buffets being served to those who were present at the event, the organizers also arranged interactive sessions for the fans with one player from the roster and two members from the team's official cheerleading group before the game. CT Bros' infielder Hsu Chi-hung (with mic) addressed the fans Two mem

The "FAS Game Changers" It is the determination to stop the rot in Singapore football that saw the assembling of the "FAS Game Changers" - a slate headed by Hougang United chairman Bill Ng for the upcoming landmark election that will see 44 eligible delegates to vote in a new 15-member Football Association of Singapore (FAS) Council at the end of the month. "We are not quick fixer!" said Ng in his opening address at the unveiling of his slate and manifesto at The Clifford Pier before he went further to outline what he and his team plan to do if being voted into office on the 29th of April. One of the first things to be looked into is the administrative issues which the businessman did not mince his words when he blasted the current FAS administrators for having "a huge coordinating problem in the secretarial office" that he felt "they don't know what they're doing". Hougang United Chairman Bill Ng However, he added

“I would love to see more proactive initiatives from clubs; more savvy marketing of players and teams to boost their profiles, as what we have seen (so far) has been dull and uninspiring.” I said those words which appeared in a wide-ranging article on TODAY weeks ago. Due credit to those who tried like how Home United did theirs last and this year, Hougang United kept everyone in the loop during the pre-season with some eye-catching updates on their Facebook "Page" and other social media platforms. While these updates online can be easily accessible on mobile gadgets during our daily routines, let's not rule out some information could be outdated to certain end-users unless they stick to their devices faithfully on a 24/7 basis in order not to be left out. Home United held their "meet-greet" before the start of the season Furthermore, one of the challenges facing most administrators using Facebook "Page", which is one of the main outreach

We tried but it has been largely a futile effort to see some clubs fused into the vicinity they based despite the reaching out that yield limited progress over the years. Just name me a list of which club had been able to mobilize the whole town to their home game when there is one? It may have come to a juncture that building rapport with nearby residents isn't really a workable model that clubs should cast their net wider to tap on those unearthed fan bases, not necessarily being parochial. AWKWARDLY LOCATED ... Given the small land area Singapore has, it has proven to be a challenge to create those cross-town or regional rivalries we have seen in other countries. Furthermore, the constant dynamism in the electoral boundaries has neither help to foster a sense of belonging (Take one example in Hougang Stadium - located in Ang Mo Kio GRC, bordered by Aljunied GRC and Hougang SMC). Politically, Hougang Stadium isn't part of Hougang SMC  Given our relatively homogeneou

The beauty of the Cup competition lives on in the RHB Singapore Cup as the "Final Four" - Etoile FC, Home United, Albirex Niigata (Singapore), and Hougang United fought till the very end to see the emerging of the Protectors and the White Swans for the 19th November date at JBS. Fred Mendy (pictured above right) scored against his old team to send HUFC to the final Both first-leg fixtures of the "Final Four" saw both the Stars and White Swans agonizingly forgo their lead in the dying moments of those matches to see their respective opponents - Home United and Hougang United crawl back to level terms to square off the encounter. At one point, such a fightback was thought impossible, until the dying moments of the match highlighted the differences between a knockout cup tie and a round-robin fixture. Mendy propelled HU at expense of old bosses Yet, it wasn't really a nail-bitter when both Etoile and Home Utd met for their recurring fixture at Queenstown Stad