Does the Singapore general public properly appreciate young footballers, medal-winning athletes and football pitch maintenance? Co-hosts Neil Humphreys and Chia Han Keong, together with SEA Games gold-winning marathoner Soh Rui Yong, examine the various issues on this episode.
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Read Han Keong’s news reports here: https://yhoo.it/3JH8o2M
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#football #podcast #premierleague
Chapters:
00:00 – Intro
01:00 – Comments from previous episodes
15:05 – Singapore in the SEA Games
22:20 – Our Tampines Hub pitch fiasco
14 Comments
Most of the Chinese population don't play football, but they do watch and love to bet on it though.🤣
When asean super league..?
Lebih baik singapura ..anjurkan kejohanan satu piala asean..seperti kejohanan piala malaysia..
Juara dan n .juara asean di jemput..
Di adakan di singapura
S league is a failure… I bet our causeway neighbour and thailand dont even want join the asean super league… unless we can get the tournament into FIFA calender or something
Hi Guys…..nice commentary, also with the guest( Rui Yong).
Nathan Mao – I like what Neil & Han Keong mentioned, we should not be too worked up about it even if it is a PR stunt. Frankly, if he is good, the coach will prefer he be at the U21 team (from the U17) instead of SPL directly… he might get more game time … but nevertheless, it is important for us to encourage more Chinese players becoming professional footballers…. If you see some social football teams in SG have good Chinese players playing for leisure, and make you wonder if these guys were given the opportunity, might have made a career in football. Ultimately, we should welcome these type of baby steps to encourage more participation from the majority population (and you, actually, see that in women’s football) ….
SEA Games – I feel it is an important yard stick for us to measure whether we have the right development structure for football in place, besides the international games (i.e. youth world cup). We are fortunate to have a regional competition for us to aim first before something higher, like Asian cup, World cup qualifying. There is nothing wrong in accepting what’s our standard and being honest to ourselves. These players are representing us in the games, competitions. We as a nation need to take the ownership.
Rui Yong – I really cannot agree more to the points he made that the players have to put more hunger on wanting to a good professional player… It is easy to admire C. Ronaldo and copy his hairstyle and his skills, but they will never want to live a day of his life. The amount of diet watching and exercising he needs done a day; to put into context he can’t even have a cup of coffee if he wants, why because of the diet requirements. Until we have players having enough hunger to make use of whatever avenues available in sg to better themselves, its hard for us to aspire big. We need the players hunger, along with other things, to fuel the development of SG football.
Our Tampines Hub – Agreed totally with Han Keong…. Even when we try to be nice and appreciate management of the stakeholders of SG Football (in this case PA), this sort of muck up keeps happening. It always been clash of events in many cases, this time is JSSL, we had Jay Chou Concert and even Min Def football tournaments clashing before. It is very evident that the stakeholders that SPL must work with (i.e., PA) do not have the interest of SPL, Football as priority and the SPL teams are forced to work with them without much choice … it’s not like there are not enough stadiums in Singapore (just google it), and yes, most need TLC but we have sufficient to allocate one to each SPL team. The money spent on football (SPL) need to be invested to facilities importantly, like the new hybrid natural grass and turf grounds to improve our pitch quality. We can get the SPL teams to manage (stadium) directly and also have them to include community events.
I can’t understand why JSSL tournament, or the Frisbee event can’t be conducted in Yio Chu kang Stadium or Woodlands stadium to avoid this. Thanks. 👃
hello all, do share your comments for next week's show 😉
I disagree that Nathan Mao's SPL debut might pave the way for other young aspiring Singaporean footballers (Chinese and non-Chinese) to follow, SIMPLY BECAUSE Hariss Harun had already done so more than 15 years ago, debuting with the national team at 16. Hariss should have been the poster boy of the local football scene, a well-behaved, clean-cut boy-next-door who was able to balance football and studies (he did well enough in secondary school to go on to poly), went on to earn lucrative contracts at JDT, captain the national team and on track to smash the international appearances record.
Problem is, he became an outlier rather than a beacon of hope, with hardly anyone who can follow in his footsteps and take up a similar profile. We probably need five or six Hariss Haruns in the national team before Chinese parents can buy into the notion that their kids can become good footballers and have the academic qualifications to fall back on post-football.
The Tampines Hub pitch fiasco highlights one paradox in the local sporting scene, some sporting facilities are over-used (OTH), while others are under-used (Sports Hub stadium). And then there are some that are never used (when was the last time you see the floating platform football pitch being used for any sporting events besides NDP and passing-out parades?). Definitely a management and deployment issue and the sports athletes can't do anything about it.
Sporting culture can and will remain uninspiring in Singapore context sadly.
To see if this Nathan Mao appearance milestone is a gimmick stunt or not, just see if he ever gets to appear as a senior International for the Lions in the future or slide into obscurity.
Not just to get called up for the national team to warm the bench or make cameo appearances off the bench. But to make regular starts.
and the infamous joke/rumour tt the wrong grass type was bought to lay onto the playing turf of the Sports Hub
I do wonder if ChopChop News Agency even watched more of Nathan Mao aside from the 5min cameo. How do you judge someone based on 5min?
We LCS fans watched when he was sent 2 years ago to Europe with the rest of the squad to play friendly games against overseas academies. We won some games, we lost some games, but Nathan was a standout in that side.
Also, Hariss is raised as a positive example of someone who "deserves" that record – but we say that because we now know Hariss went on to blossom to become a fantastic player for Singapore. Let's give Nathan a few more years to develop before declaring his career over and writing him off as an average player.
From an academy perspective as well, Nathan will now be the story that serves as inspiration for those in LCS Academy to now go – "ok, our club has a ton of money, but they still give youth chances. I have a shot here"
Good ep – I've had my misgivings about Soh Rui Yong in the past, but he was a valuable addition to this episode with his frank views, and his POV as an athlete. Cheers!
Haiyah, Nathan was on only five minutes. Give the boy a break. Give the boys a break.
Had an interview for a position at FAS a few years ago. I spoke with two management staff. I briefly recall them acknowledging the criticism and feedback they received on their FB. However, their explanation for the negative comments, such as being understaffed/needing to help out on match days, no time to handle other issues, didn't resonate with me. It seemed like they were more focused on defending themselves rather than acknowledging the criticism. As an interviewee, I didn't respond much.
I sincerely hope FAS could get better management and sort out all issues.
Betting on the Singapore Premier league is more fun . If you are just watching it , it is boring. 😂