BoLASEPaKO.com - A Blog on Singapore Football

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

Lions Training Session 040918 Khairul Amri putting in the pace The Singapore National Team get together at Geylang Field to gear themselves for the upcoming friendly games against Mauritius and Fiji on 7th and 11th September respectively. PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR REST OF THE PICTURES Friendly: Singapore 2-0 Fiji 110918 Shahril Ishak (17) met with some Fijian resistance Singapore National Team won their first match under national interim coach Fandi Ahmad with a 2-0 win over Fiji at the Bishan Stadium. Prior to this match, the Lions drew one-all with Mauritius on the same ground. PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES

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