BoLASEPaKO.COM - A Blog on Singapore Football

This post is a reproduction of a reply to one question posted on an online forum on how to improve local football It's a question everyone has been asking, and TBH, there is no viable solution to the problems we are facing. As for now, I would encourage that those who have been to local matches, be it the national team's, SPL ( Singapore Premier League ) or even school games, post and share their thoughts on their socials with their family and friends. Spread the awareness using your phone While we may not see those who have never been to local matches to be convinced or be converted instantly, the whole idea is to spread the awareness of the local game, which has been besieged by negative publicity (i.e., the usual Goal 2XXX or 3XXX joke). Let your family and friends know about the other side of local football through' your social media postings and make them curious about "How come my who-and-who is following the exploits of Lion City Sailors when almost everyone i...

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...

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...

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" ...

 WCQ - Singapore 0-7 South Korea 060624 Action in the box during the SIN-KOR WCQ match It was a bitter pill to swallow for Coach Tsutomu Ogura after witnessing the Singapore national team suffer one of their heaviest defeats in recent years after they were crushed seven-nil at Kallang in front of a crowd of 49,000. CLICK HERE TO SEE PICTURES ➤ SINGAPORE VS KOREA REPUBLIC SGPL - Lion City Sailors 7-1 Albirex Niigata (Singapore) 230624 Albirex's Amy Recha stretched to the max  Lion City Sailors remained unbeaten since the start of the campaign with this thrashing of the defending champions at their Bishan home base. On the other hand, it was an unrecognisable White Swans side that were a dominant force in local football in recent years. CLICK HERE TO SEE PICTURES ➤ LION CITY SAILORS VS ALBIREX NIIGATA (S) Lions' Sept FIFA Window Training 020924 Lions Coach Ogura (left) talking to his assistant Gavin Lee The Singapore National Team commenced their centralised training session und...

"This is, after all, just an artist's impression," I told myself as I looked at the image depicting the football stadium in the upcoming Toa Payoh Integrated Development Project , plastered on the hoardings surrounding the site where the Toa Payoh Stadium  once stood. The mural of the football stadium From the mural, it appears that the stadium will be somewhat similar to Our Tampines Hub (OTH) , except there will be a spectator stand behind one of the goalposts positioned near the Pan Island Expressway (PIE).  However, it remains unclear whether a similar arrangement will be made for the area facing the main stand or behind the goalposts near Toa Payoh Lorong 6, based on the drawing. THE CHALLENGE OF MULTI-PURPOSE SPACES Given how the "Town Square @ OTH" (the football field at OTH) is utilised, it wouldn't be surprising if football has to compete with other activities once this integrated development, scheduled for completion in 2030, is finished. Meanwhi...

Singapore football fans are diverse, each bringing a unique perspective to the game. Based on social media insights and unofficial and unaffiliated polls conducted on this platform's Instagram Story, we identified four key personas: David, Clara, Adam, and Ethan. Let's take a look at what sets them apart and how they contribute to the Singapore football scene. DAVID, THE TRADITIONALIST "David" enjoys the historical side of Singapore football David is a 38-year-old football fan who cherishes the history and expert commentary of the game. He prefers traditional media sources like CNA and The Straits Times. For David, these outlets provide the in-depth stories and reliable information he values. David's love for football is rooted in tradition and detailed narratives, making him a key preserver of Singapore football history. Key Insights: Prefers traditional media for reliable and detailed information Engages deeply with historical context and expert commentary Pain...

Former sports reporter Amanpreet Singh penned the following thoughts (in green text) on Facebook shortly after Albirex Niigata (Singapore) succumbed to their sixth defeat of the campaign to Tanjong Pagar United  on 12th July 2024. Albirex Niigata (S) under Kazuaki Yoshinaga in his previous 4 league seasons in charge (2017, 2018, 2022 and 2023): 7 losses in TOTAL. Albirex Niigata (S) so far this season: 6 losses. Yoshinaga is not the problem. In fact, he is the least of the problems. If you want him sacked, then you have very limited knowledge about the challenges in Singapore football. Sacking him will not solve anything. There is also no other coach (local or foreign) who knows the club better than him. Do you think hiring another coach will result in an immediate upturn in results for Albirex? It will not. In fact, things will, in all likelihood, get worse. Coach Yoshinaga made a sad exit from Singapore football Let’s not forget that Yoshinaga has won the league title in every si...

Without much fanfare, at least in Singapore, Central Coast Mariners became the first Australian club to win the AFC Cup after defeating Al-Ahed of Lebanon. The crowning of the Gosford-based A-League side as the winners of the continent's second-tier club competition marked the end of the tournament since its inception twenty years ago in 2004. As far as the Lion City is concerned, this competition enabled teams from the island republic to compete against teams from the region. It was quite common during the tournament to see teams like SAFFC , Home United , Tampines Rovers , etc., traveling to places like the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, Hong Kong, Indonesia, etc., to face their regional opponents. Duric (left) has seen the highs and lows of Singapore's AFC Cup journey Unfortunately, many, in my humble opinion, seem to fail to appreciate what the AFC Cup has done for local clubs given the lack of fan interest and the scant coverage from the local media. Besides gaining much-n...

(This entry is formulated based on the media release issued by SGX Group, to which the images depicted below are credited) SGX will run a financial training camp for footballers Following their collaboration with Lion City Sailors Football Club in 2022 to equip their footballers with essential financial management skills with a series of workshops, the Singapore Exchange (SGX Group) widened that approach with an announcement made this morning (3rd April 2024) of another new initiative on a wider scope. EQUIP THE PLAYERS WITH FINANCIAL LITERACY THROUGH SGX CARES In partnership with the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) and as part of SGX Group's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme, SGX Cares, where financial literacy is one of the key pillars, the training camp is curated to equip the footballers with the fundamentals of financial management and investing which are essential building blocks to financial resilience. Close to 500 footballers from the Singapore Premi...

Why are we repeating? I have to be brutally honest on this - I really see no point in coming up with this year's "Annual Review" when most of the stuff that I going to talk about are mere repetitions all along. YOUNG LIONS Seems like much of what happened in the past twelve months stayed largely status quo with the Young Lions remaining bottom at the Singapore Premier League (SPL) table for another year. To make things worse when the bulk of the Young Lions that formed the SEA (South East Asian) Games squad got hammered 7-0 by arch-rivals Malaysia  (highlights below from Mediacorp Youtube channel ), it triggered a massive public outrage on how things went bad to worse. The above-mentioned coupled with that disastrous AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup outing months earlier did little help but more damage to the beleaguered sport which used to be a focal point of the nation in the long-gone past. CONVENIENCE SOURCE FOR MEME Instead, local football relegated itself to be a sour...

SGPL - Balestier Khalsa 4-2 Young Lions 120723 Emmeric Ong (striped jersey) of Balestier Khalsa shared a light moment It was a "mere formality" to see this outcome day in and day out, and we wouldn't know when this would end. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES Tiger Cup match between THFC and LCS of SFOF23 (25-260723) England skipper Harry Kane at National Stadium Here are the snaps taken during the "Tiger Cup" match of the Singapore Festival of Football Driven by CDG Zig (SFOF23) between Tottenham Hotspur and Lion City Sailors on 26/7 at National Stadium and the day before when Spurs held their open training session at National Stadium. Nope, Harry Kane did not play his match for Spurs in Singapore. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES SFOF23/SCST2023 - Liverpool 4-0 Leicester City 300723 Liverpool skipper Virgil Van Dijk plotting his next move Liverpool got down to work straight away with a 4-0 win over former EPL side...

 SGPL - Lion City Sailors 3-1 Tanjong Pagar United 240223 Both Sailors and Jags anticipating a ball into the box Lion City Sailors opened their Singapore Premier League campaign with a sweet victory over Tanjong Pagar United in their homecoming at the Bishan Stadium. Japanese ace striker Kodai Tanaka marked his Sailors' debut with a brace from close range in second half. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE OF THE MATCH PICTURES SGPL - Balestier Khalsa 2-3 Hougang United 260223 Balestier Khalsa's Ryoya Taniguchi (red shirt) surrounded by Hougang United players Hougang United claimed all three points at Bishan Stadium by beating Balestier Khalsa 3-2 in a scrappy encounter which is otherwise known as the "pinball" derby. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES SGPL - Geylang International 2-1 Hougang United 050323 Hougang United's players look on as Geylang International celebrate With Vincent Bezecourt's double in the second half, Geylang Internation...

• Fix the things that are not right • Improvise things to make things better • Scrap the things if they do not deliver • Leave it as it is if they still functioning properly When we are talking about the privatisation of the Singapore Premier League (SPL) which is widely speculated to take place somewhere down the road soon, let's make sure we will get off from the right footing in the right direction. "GOAL 2010" must be put to rest NOW The painful lessons are drawn from the much-ridiculed " Goal 2010 " and its reincarnation - that "Strategic Plan" (launched in 2010) must be heeded, in order not to repeat the same mistakes again. There are things that should allow nature to take its course and not be hurried just to meet the unreasonable self-imposed deadline, but it is also a sin to procrastinate on those lingering problems that could escalate to do more damage down the road. Another key to making the privatisation process a success is to guide th...

Long before Lion City Sailors established themselves as the country's first privately-owned football club, there was at one point more than thirty years ago that one football club haboured a similar ambition to transform themselves into one as well. When the news of Lion City Sailors planning to have their own stadium surfaced in November 2021, I remember reading something similar in the papers back in the 1990s when I managed to retrieve that old news report from the archives recently. BLUEPRINT OF TAMPINES ROVERS "SPORTS CLUB" It was part of the ambitious blueprint of a National Football League ( NFL, now known as Singapore Football League ) Division One club - Tampines Rovers Sports Club ( hereafter to refer as "SC" in this article that is not to be confused with the Singapore Premier League club Tampines Rovers Football Club which later in this post will explain why ), when the news was first broke out by The New Paper back in January 1992 . TNP broke the ...