info@sleague.com
Eleven out of twelve S.League clubs will find themselves deprived of their regular training grounds during the General Election 2011 campaigning period, as many sports stadiums islandwide have been designated as rally sites for the next eight days.
This was announced by the Singapore Sports Council in a press release on Wednesday evening, after it was confirmed that 26 out of 27 constituencies in this year’s General Election will see contests, making it the largest in scale since the start of the S.League in 1996.
As a consequence of the Nomination Day results, Bedok, Bishan, Choa Chu Kang, Clementi, Jurong East, Jurong West, Tampines, Toa Payoh and Woodlands Stadiums have been designated as rally sites and will be closed to all bookings for sports activities.
32 other locations islandwide, most of which are open fields, are also involved as rally sites for the campaigning period.
In addition, sleague.com understands that Hougang Stadium and Queenstown Stadium will also be held in reserve by the Singapore Police Force, which leaves Jalan Besar as the only stadium available for holding of S.League matches.
The stadium is the Courts Young Lions’ home ground, but they do not have any home matches within the campaigning period.
Apart from the matches themselves, however, clubs are also in a mad scramble to find other fields they can go to in order to train and prepare, which is no small challenge even in normal times.
“With everything that revolves around the General Election, most of the stadiums will be unavailable for S.League usage,” said FAS Deputy Director (Marketing & Competitions) Ridzal Saat.
“With that, we have to reschedule some of the matches to a later date or relocate them to Jalan Besar Stadium.
“We are working closely with the clubs and SSC to source for alternative venues for their training for the period of the General Election. This includes Jalan Besar Stadium.”
The impact of the General Election on the S.League calendar goes beyond a change of venues, with double-headers originally scheduled on three days now to be broken up due to the shortage of venues.
Monday evening was set to see SAFFC host the Young Lions at Choa Chu Kang, while Geylang United were to travel to Queenstown Stadium to face reigning champions Etoile FC.
Both of those games must now be postponed, and the effects of these changes were not lost on Geylang coach Mike Wong, who had been planning on the assumption his team’s match would not be affected.
The Tampines GRC resident admitted those plans could now change.
“I’m not sure at this point if our game against Etoile is postponed,” said Wong on Wednesday evening, prior to the postponement announcement.
“If it is, then I will have to redo my training programme to prepare the team for the next game after that. Some things might be disrupted, but it may be a blessing in disguise, because we have some injuries in our team.
“I’m sure that as coaches, most of us would prefer our game not to be moved. But an election happens only once every four or five years.
“This year’s election, especially, is going to involve so many venues. It’s a big thing in the country, so I guess we really have no choice.”
Japanese outfit Albirex Niigata (Singapore), which had joined the S.League in 2004, are the first team to see their home match moved as a result of the General Election.
Their meeting with eight-time league champions SAFFC this evening was supposed to be played at Jurong East Stadium, and the club had originally planned a party set promotion for groups of three or more attending the game.
But with the stadium now designated as the sole election rally venue for Yuhua SMC, the game has been moved to Jalan Besar.
It was something White Swans vice-chairman and general manager Koh Mui Tee, who is Singaporean and lives in Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, had to explain to the Japanese staff members at the club.
“My Japanese colleagues are surprised, because in Japan it is the clubs who own the stadiums,” he remarked.
“They were not used to the idea of us having to move our games for an election. But once I told them we don’t actually own the stadiums here, but instead use them on rental, they accepted it.
“We had to see to some logistical arrangements, like moving our sponsors’ advertising boards from Jurong East to Jalan Besar. We also had to apologise to people we had informed about a planned promotion at Jurong East because we had to cancel it.
“The good thing is we were able to make pre-emptive plans early, because we Singaporeans know that stadiums are often used as rally sites. I told my colleagues there may be changes coming about, so it was not that much of a surprise for all of us.”
Early reactions in cyberspace threw up the possibility of postponing all eight fixtures directly affected by the election rallies, as well as the two Friday evening matches on 29 April and 6 May, which were designated to take place at Jalan Besar anyway due to television reasons.
Both Koh and Wong were not keen on the idea, however, believing that playing on throughout the campaigning period is in everybody’s best interests given the rare circumstances.
“Our preference would of course have been to play the game as scheduled at Jurong East,” said Koh, whose side was also to travel to Clementi Stadium next week to face bottom team Tanjong Pagar United, only for news to emerge that the match will now be postponed.
“But moving the place where we play the game is the next best option, because postponing the game introduces new uncertainties like deciding when to hold the game. Besides, Jalan Besar has a good artificial pitch, and we have no complaints about that.”
“Playing on this field is not easy, and if you don’t get a couple of training sessions in, the first 15 or 20 minutes would be a tall order for some players,” added Wong.
“But if you postpone all the games, there might be some fixture congestion down the road. We have the Singapore Cup coming up, there are the World Cup qualifiers, and there’s also the SEA Games, so it is probably better to carry on with the league as much as possible right now.”
Also in agreement with the venue switch decision is 36-year-old Muhammad Abdullah, who has been following the S.League for the last twelve years.
The Sengkang West SMC resident said he did not expect the General Election to draw him away from too many matches, even if some people he often sees might be missing for a while.
“I will still come to games and support my favourite teams,” he told sleague.com.
“It may cause some inconvenience, but we’ll do our part for the elections. If it means playing every game at Jalan Besar for this period, then so be it.
“Will I go to a rally instead of a football game? Yes and no, depending on whether there are any interesting rallies that day, as well as what game is on.
“Not everyone may think like me, and I think attendances will be affected by the election rallies, but it is something we will just have to bear with. The elections will be over in about a week, so in the meantime let’s try to keep on giving support to our football teams.”
No comments:
Post a Comment