BoLASEPaKO.com - A Blog on Singapore Football

In the very beginning, Mr Gaw Khek Khiam 's idea was to initiate a tournament similar to that of the Malaya Cup (now Malaysia Cup) but to be contested by Chinese footballers representing the various Malay States and Singapore in 1925. BLOATED ATTEMPT TO REPLICATE MALAYA CUP Unfortunately, the response to the concept of Semarang-born, Raffles Institution graduated Gaw was lukewarm from those Chinese football teams across the Straits of Johor when Singapore's footballing prowess was way ahead of them in that era. Chee Lim with Ho Ho Cup (Malayan Saturday Post, 25 May 1929 (NLB NewspaperSG online archive ) Not to be deterred by the lack of enthusiasm from the rest of the Malayan sides and had already spent a princely sum of £200 on a trophy made in England, the proprietor of the Ho Ho Biscuit Factory approached local renowned footballer Yee Cheok Wah and travelled together to Hong Kong where they proposed to organise a match between Chinese footballers represen

Michel Sablon will leave FAS on 31st December 2018 Honestly, whether Michel Sablon's blueprint devised for the local football will work? Only time will tell and it is too quick to pass any judgment when the seeds were just sown after the land had just cleared for recultivation. While many fans seems to judge the Belgian's performance based on the less glamorous results achieved by various national teams in recent years, let us not forget the job scope of that of the technical director and the coach are two entirely different scopes. One is to formulate and layout the technical aspects of the game development, the other is to coach and achieve results on the field. Sablon gave a presentation on his blueprint Said local football observer Gary Koh: "We can only see in a few years whether Michel Sablon is a slight improvement (as compared to his predecessor Slobodan Pavkovic ) or otherwise. "But definitely never at the level of what he was p

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.