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He took over the hottest seat in sport in the country when he succeeded Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee as Football Association of Singapore (FAS) president in April 2009.
Under Ho's stewardship, the Lions had claimed successive ASEAN titles in 2004 and 2006, and also reached the third round of Asian Zone World Cup qualifiers, and new football chief Zainudin Nordin was under even more pressure from the first whistle, in a sport notorious for fans and pundits who almost universally demand instant success.
Over the months, Singapore football enjoyed little fanfare under Zainudin's watch.
The under-23 team collected a bronze medal from the SEA Games in December 2009 and the under-15s did the same at last year's Youth Olympic Games.
The under-23s misfired badly at last year's Asian Games and, in a huge shock, the Lions could not even make it past the first round of the AFF Suzuki Cup in December.
All the while, fan turnout at S-League matches remained poor.
Yesterday's announcement of a major collaboration between the Football Association of Malaysia and the FAS is the first major victory for Zainudin as the steward of Singapore football.
It is an exciting prospect as the Malaysian Tigers and a Singapore Lions side prepare to do battle on either side of the Causeway from next season.
Zainudin and his team must be hailed for working with their Malaysian counterparts and coming up with a bold plan to try and revive the heady days of the 1970s, '80s and '90s, when Malaysia Cup football was part of the fabric of life on both sides of the Causeway.
Fans who remember those years, the ones who packed the National Stadium for home games and travelled with the Lions for matches at Kubu Stadium in Malacca and Kangar, Perlis, will be eager for the action to start but I wonder if the younger set of Singaporeans who have gorged themselves on an endless diet of Premier League football will be similarly moved.
That is the next big task for Zainudin and his men.
The FAS have to pull out all the stops to get the turnstiles clicking at the various football arenas here when our S-League clubs take on the Tigers. The target for the Singapore Lions' home games in the M-League and Malaysia Cup at Jalan Besar Stadium must be a 6,000 sellout and an attractive package must be put in place for fans to accompany the team on the road when they take on the likes of Selangor, Sabah and Sarawak.
Over the last few years, a number of Malaysian coaches and former players have been impressed by the development programme that churns out players for the Tigers.
It worked well enough for the Malaysian under-23 team to win gold at the 2009 SEA Games.
The current team are in the final qualifying round for next year's Olympics, grouped with the likes of powerhouses Japan.
They will be good, and for the fans here to latch on to the S-League, then our local sides must draft in higher quality foreign signings and feature more skilful local players, to serve up a delicious feast of football.
Only a stylish, attacking brand of football will draw the fans out and it also means the Singapore Lions' must be an outfit good enough to challenge the best from across the Causeway.
I know Zainudin and his team will point to the increased funding obtained by the FAS from Singapore Pools for the S-League clubs earlier this year as a significant achievement.
It was crucial to sustain some of the clubs in a competition that is fundamental to the health of the No 1 sport in the country.
But the move for a Singapore team to return to the M-League and Malaysia Cup is an initiative that rocks the foundations of football here and stirs the imagination.
This golden opportunity for a whole new set of fans to be imbued forever with that special vibe of a Malaysia-Singapore football challenge cannot go to waste.
The writer is executive sports editor with MediaCorp NewsHub.
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