BoLASEPaKO.com - A Blog on Singapore Football

Song Ui-young tussled with Hafiz Nor (11) The league opener for the Uniform Duo of Home United and Warriors FC ended in a two-all draw in the last evening at the Bishan Stadium, which last staged an S.League match back in 2014 after it was selected as one of the venues for the biennial South-East-Asian Games a year later. Prior to the start of this much-hyped campaign saw both sides went through a massive reshuffling in their squads that saw a few notable signings laden onto their rosters with likes of Madhu Mohana, Yazid Yasin recruited from the disbanded Lions XII and Geylang International respectively to Warriors who also welcomed back the likes of Hafiz Osman, Shaiful Esah and Ismail Yunos to the fold. While Home United impressed upon the rest with new names like Faris Ramli, Khairul Nizam, Zulfahmi Arifin (from Lion XII), the two sons of local legend Fandi Ahmad – Irfan and Ikhsan Fandi while retained the core of their squad from last season that included their import trio

(L-R) FAS VP Lim Kia Tong inked the deal with SMRT Commercial's Dawn Low The ongoing buzz surrounding the S.League continues when the local transportation system also gets involved following the announcement of the partnership inked between the League and SMRT Commercial in a ceremony held this afternoon which was graced by the presence of luminaries such as FAS president Zainudin Nordin, S.League CEO Lim Chin and SMRT Commercial Managing Director Dawn Low. Under this new three-year partnership, the promoting and the drive for greater awareness of the League will leverage extensively on SMRT transport network with initiatives like having "meet-and-greet” sessions between players and fans to be held at venues offered by the transporting giants' retailing network such as Raffles Xchange, etc. are on the pipeline. To mark the occasion, a train specially plastered with images of various players from the participating teams, was launched in conjunction with the press an

Various players from S.League clubs with the new match ball   The long-to-be-seen hype surrounding this season's S.League has added another talking point with the introducing of its new official match ball - Mitre Delta Hyperseam Football , when it was officially unveiled this afternoon at the Jalan Besar Stadium. Under this new partnership, Mitre, the world’s oldest manufacturer of footballs, will provide match balls for all S.League, Prime League, Singapore Cup, League Cup, COE League, National Football League and Island Wide League matches for the next five years. Mitre will the official ball and product supplier for the next five years Mitre Delta Hyperseam Football This is the same match ball used in both The Football League and Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) in England and Scotland respectively. FEATURES • Featuring Mitre's latest technology Hyperseam, the only technology that fuses stitched and bonded seams to give players the benefits of

Fans waiting patiently for their turn Not very often we would have an S.League club do something like this before the start of any season, but it is an encouraging sign. Judging from the turnout at the “Meet and Greet” session organized by Home United at the Bishan Stadium this evening which, at the same time, allowed supporters to catch a glimpse of the players' training session. Prior to the start of the first autograph session, both players and backroom staff were individually introduced to the crowds before it was adjourned to the open training session that was concluded with a match between “Team A” and “Team B” with the former scored a 4-1 victory over the latter. By then, eager fans were already formed along the stairways of the main stand for the second autograph session with new signings like Faris Ramli, Khairul Nizam, Irfan Fandi with skipper Juma'at Jantan at the first of the row on the limited edition posters that went on sale in conjunction with the even

Lim Chin is thinking of a way to "fit S.League into the ASL system". Even though many are skeptical, they still see it as an opportunity to place the ailing S.League as the priority again after Lions XII's acrimonious exit from the Malaysian league. Unfortunately, it will not be the case when the top man of the league, himself, declared: "If we agree that the ASL (Asean Super League) will be a good platform for us to build a strong national team, then we should all work together to achieve that... We have to find a creative way to transform the S.League into a system to fit into the ASL model," The presser of the recent FAS AGM (credit: FAS) Those words by S.League's CEO Lim Chin at the recently concluded FAS (Football Association of Singapore) AGM shattered those who harboured hopes to see the country's only professional sports league be given the attention it badly needed to unplug itself from life support. But with the game's local