Football
ESPN staff 8y

Singapore football decides to postpone decision on future leadership

The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) has been made to wait for its first elected leadership, following an 11th-hour decision to withdraw it from the agenda at Saturday's annual general meeting (AGM).

It had initially been expected that the FAS, following consultation and approval from FIFA, would vote for the proposed constitutional amendments to allow for democratic election of its leaders.

However, the AGM ended abruptly when current president Zainudin Nordin announced that the move would be postponed to a further date after an unexpected decision that was only reached on Friday night.

According to Zainudin, this is to allow further consultation with the 46 voting members of the FAS, which will then see a revised constitution submitted to football's world governing body for further approval.

"This whole process has taken quite a long time because we need to ensure everything is done with our stakeholders, then FIFA, and finally with the engagement of our members," he said.

"In light of requests of extensions for the consultation and feedback process, we've decided to remove this from the AGM, and will be writing to all our members with regards to the next step.

"It's tedious, but it has to be done and at least now we have a baseline for everybody to discuss along."

Zainudin's sentiments were echoed by vice president Bernard Tan, who claims that some of Asia's giants also underwent a lengthy transitional period. "It wasn't an easy decision (but) the development of the constitution has gone on for 10 months," he said.

"The constitutional change which leads to an elected body is a significant change and we shouldn't take it lightly.

"Japan took two years to get it done while Saudi Arabia also took a few years."

With what was meant to be a significant decision for the future of Singapore football chalked off, most of the discussion at the AGM stemmed from queries over the expenditure of FAS from the previous financial year.

From the S$8.25million that was spent on Singapore's national teams, over 50 per cent (S$4.4m) went to the now-defunct LionsXII, who were disbanded following their expulsion from the Malaysia Super League at the end of last season.

Another member questioned the spending of S$2.7m of the S$5.76m total expenditure for development on wages for technical and coaching staff.

However, Tan was quick to dismiss these queries as election tactics from individuals of rival parties looking to challenge the incumbents at the expected election.

Tan added: "It wasn't a significant number of members [who questioned the budget]. I think it was just four out of 46, which isn't a lot.

"I think some of them are posturing but, nevertheless, FAS has been very transparent about its accounts.

"In terms of how we've spent the money, the questions were not really on governance but the priorities.

"When we're talking about [potential] elections, that's what happens."

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