The one name which captured the eye of the Singapore football fraternity when the list of nominees seeking elections to positions on the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Executive Committee was that of Lee Boon Aun Winston.
In Singapore football circles, he is better know. as Winston Lee, who resigned as General Secretary of the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) in December 2017.
See earlier story here.
Now it has emerged that the current Council of the FAS was not aware that Lee had been nominated by the FAS to seek a position on the AFC Exco for the term beginning in 2019.
The council is made up of the the President, Deputy President, four Vice-Presidents and nine other members who are elected into the decision making body.
In a Sunday Times report published on 9 December, a Council member who asked to remain anonymous has stated that the decision to nominate Lee was not made known to the FAS Exco.
The Council member to the Sunday Times: “We learnt about this from the media and this is not right, especially for a decision that has to do with our country’s representation in the region.”
It is not known why the decision to nominate Lee was not cleared by the FAS Council or if it was passed through the Council.
A sitting Vice-President, Lee has been on the role over the last four years but his role on the continental body has not been affected by the police probe which has been ongoing since April 2017.
Lee, former Football Association of Singapore President Zainudin Nordin and Hougang United Chairman Bill Ng have all been assisting in a police probe which involved a $500,000 donation from National Football League side Tiong Bahru.
Ng was also the Chairman of Tiong Bahru when the donation was made.