BoLASEPaKO.com - A Blog on Singapore Football

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.

I am wondering if was it because we played both Mauritius (FIFA ranked 155th) and Fiji (165th) in our recent friendlies that the ridiculing of our football continues by some skeptics? DIFFERENT EXPOSURE Granted the fact that both the aforementioned countries are not known for their football powress with someone even thought it was a rugby match when we took on the Fijians last evening , the two virtually unknown sides did, however, give Singapore national team some much-needed workouts in preparing for the upcoming AFF Suzuki Cup. Baihakki Khaizan (5) restraining Fijian captain Roy Krishna Instead of the "usual who" kind of opponents, I thought it was a refreshing change to see games against teams which allowed the Lions to expose to some robust kind of football aided by the opponents' much superior physical frames. It was probably this kind of exposure that made a good introduction to a different level of football between the domestic and internati

AFC Cup - Home United 2-0 Ceres–Negros FC 080818 Shahrin Saberin (18) skipped across a Ceres player in this move Home United Football Club beat Ceres-Negros FC 2-0 in the second-leg of the AFC Cup Asean Zonal Final and qualified for the next stage of the tournament on a 3-1 aggregate. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES AFC Cup - Home United 0-2 "4.25" SC 210818 HUFC's Song Ui-young (8) tussling with Pak Jin-myong of 4.25 It was a different ball game when Home United Football Club progressed to the inter-zonal stages of the AFC Cup tournament. The Protectors lost 2-0 in the first-leg of the series against 4.25 SC from DPRK. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES

"The Kung Sheung Daily News" report on the Singaporeans' debut for Kitchee in November 1950 This is a follow-up entry on the post regarding the  seven Singaporean players who played for Kitchee SC in Hong Kong First Division back in the 1950s . "Hong Kong Football History Society" , the Facebook Page that contributed the old newspaper clippings to the said entry back last month, posted a summary of the Singaporeans' debut in Kowloon on 12th November 1950. The summary was based on the match report filed by "The Kung Sheung Daily News" (工商日報) dated 13th November 1950. THE "TIGER BALM" CONNECTION  At the beginning of the summary, it was revealed that the recruitment of the Singaporeans was the brainchild of the late Aw Hoe (胡好) of the famed "Tiger Balm" Aw family despite at that point of time he had already exited from Hong Kong football scene and returned to Singapore in July 1950. "Not willing to see the

More changes are being made to the Singapore Selection in the upcoming Sultan of Selangor's Cup tournament at the end of the month. After their last week's victory over Ceres-Negros in the AFC Cup tournament , Home United will have to omit their representation from the annual showdown in Shah Alam in order to concentrate their continental match against North Korea's 4.25 SC on the 21st of August at the Jalan Besar Stadium. Both Izzdin Shafiq (13) and Shahril Ishak (17) have to withdraw from the Shah Alam trip The Singapore Selection will be helmed by Balestier Khalsa's Marko Kraljevic instead of Protectors' tactician Aidil Sharin, as reported by Fox Sports Asia . ALL JAPANESE IMPORTS IN SINGAPORE SELECTION On top of that, the likes of Tampines Rovers' Syazwan Buhari, Hafiz Sujad, Warriors FC's Emmeric Ong and Albirex Niigata (Singapore)'s Wataru Murofushi are some of those named as the replacement for Home United absentees in the 21-man squad