Wednesday, May 23, 2007

FAS boo-boo

What a boo-boo! Last week, the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) proudly announced the induction of Aide Iskandar and S Subramani into the Fifa’s Century Club. This is for players who have played over 100 times for their countries.

So far, so good right? A close look at the list reveals an amazing information. They are the first two Singaporeans to make the Century Club! What about Fandi Ahmad, Malek Awab, Samad Allapitchay, David Lee and Nazri Nasir? Fandi Ahmad debuted for Singapore at age 17, and retires at 35. Surely he has more than 100 caps?

It seems that the problem lies not with Fifa, but with our own FAS. Fifa only recognise players when presented with proper documentation like team sheets, match commissioner’s reports and other supporting documents. It seems that FAS did not keep records when Fandi started playing for Singapore, even for something as simple as how many caps a player has.

I don't know how the FAS can clear this mess, but without question they must. These players spent a lot of effort playing for the Singapore cause, surely the least we can do is to keep track on how many caps they have. The very, very least.

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