Hosts' tactics to win football gold leave a sour taste

Source

It has been four years since Singapore tasted victory in the international arena of football. The Suzuki Cup win in 2007 seems a lifetime away now.

Success at the SEA Games has been even harder to come by - the Republic's footballers have never struck gold in football, the most coveted medal at the biennial event.

The dream is to mould a team, to shape a new generation of youngsters, perhaps led by Safuwan Baharudin, to finally end the gold medal drought in 2015 when Singapore aims to host the 28th SEA Games. It will be magic for a football nation.

Singapore will be fired up to win the football tournament if it does host the 2015 SEA Games, but our organisers must not emulate what the Indonesians are doing here in their desire to win gold.

From a rearrangement of fixtures, to a change in kick-off times and even disallowing the foreign teams to adopt suitable training schedules, I cannot help but feel the Indonesians have skewed home-ground advantage to the extreme, to give their side the best chance possible of winning in front of their own football-mad fans.

Sadly, sportsmanship has taken a back seat.

After a hard fought win over Thailand on Wednesday, Malaysian attempts to change their early morning training slot to a later one yesterday was rejected by the organisers. The defending champions were forced to train within their hotel compound, instead.

The Singapore team have had to deal with issues as well. When they step out onto the pitch at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium this afternoon to face Indonesia, it will be the third game the Young Lions have played in the space of five days.

The hosts? After facing unfancied Cambodia on Monday, they have had a three-day break to rest tired legs and re-charge batteries before looking to unleash their venom on a Singapore side battered after two bruising encounters.

Originally scheduled to face Singapore in the final match day in Group A, a schedule change now sees Indonesia take on defending champions Malaysia instead, with some in the football fraternity speculating it was a move to save the toughest opposition for last, when qualification for the semi-finals could already have been secured.

While some of the blame can be attributed to organisational glitches rather than a calculated move to ease the hosts' passage into the semi-finals, the impression is already formed, and the thought entrenched.

Even if the hosts blow everyone away en route to victory, the gold medal will be somewhat tarnished.

The hope is that even as Singapore chase gold, if the Games do come to our shores in 2015, sportsmanship is placed a couple of rungs above the burning ambition to win. Organisational integrity cannot be compromised.



Shamir Osman is a senior reporter at Today.