Tanjong Pagar United’s ignominious 7-2 defeat at the hands of Balestier Khalsa on 25 November was not unexpected and raises many uncomfortable questions.
Over the few weeks, the club has been mired in some level of turmoil within, with its financial position seeming somewhat precarious.
TMSG was first alerted to the issues in October, after there were rumblings of late salary payments and vendor payment delays, and has been holding on to this story until after the club played its final Singapore Cup match given that it still had a chance to make the knockout stages.
The Jaguars capitulation at Bishan Stadium was shocking, and points to deeper issues at the club which needs an airing, while not taking away the effort of the Balestier Khalsa side which continued to pound the Jaguars till the very last minute of the match.
RESIGNATIONS GALORE
At the end of October, Jaguars General Manager Jacob Wee and Marketing Executive (also a club stalwart) Richard Woon (photo below) both tendered their resignations from the club.
They were the club’s only two full time administrative staff, shockingly.
Both Wee and Woon did not respond to TMSG when queried about reasons behind their sudden departure.
Not only that, TMSG has also been informed of the departure of Teo Hock Seng, Yunos Samad and Wang Meng Meng, all of whom were in the club’s management team.
Teo, the executive chairman of Komoco Holdings, who is also a Football Association of Singapore Vice-President, was the club’s second adviser.
The club has not updated its own platforms to reflect the departures of both Wang and Yunos, and of Wee and Woon as at 26 November.
In Wee’s place, the club brought back former general manager Desmond Khusnin (photo below, left) to the fray, seen in the photo below with club chairman Raymond Tang Siah Huat.
But among the first few things Khusnin had to deal with was understanding the club’s current level of financial stability, which does not look to be in fine form unfortunately.
THE FINANCIAL BLACK HOLE
Firstly, the club’s annual returns submitted to the Registry of Societies after its annual general meeting held on 26 May 2023 for the previous calendar showed that the club operated on a loss of more than $250,000 for 2022.
The reporting period was from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022.
According to the submission, the club had income of $1,725,337 but ended up spending $1,980,546.
The submission also confirmed that the club’s registered office is a used car showroom.
TMSG had written about this in a previous story.
It does not look like things have gotten any better this year for the Jaguars, from a financial perspective.
Various service providers are allegedly still owed money, to the tune of more than $50,000 according evidence seen by TMSG, including requests from these providers seeking payments.
TMSG will not publish these documents as it would incriminate our informants.
Among them are the club’s service provider for ambulance services for home match days, Singapore General Hospital and Fullerton Healthcare.
It is not known if payments had been made over the last two weeks and what is the current quantum of amounts owed.
MONEY NO ENOUGH
What has also compounded the club’s financial position is the fact that matchday ticket sales have not been able to garner much in terms of revenue.
For example, in the match against Lion City Sailors on 1 July, the official match attendance form showed that the club only sold 171 adult tickets.
If a ticket was $10, this meant that the club only earned a total of $1710 in revenue, still not taking into consideration revenues raised from sales of children tickets.
TMSG understands that for most home matches in the season, the club was not able to cover the costs of organising the home match, which explains why certain service providers are still owed payments.
For example, for its match against Young Lions on 1 April, the match only had 27 paying adult fans, and 18 fans who paid for concessions tickets, a grand total of 45 paying fans.
This is shocking on so many levels.
This meant that the club earned a meagre $360 in ticket revenues, and from this also had to pay the FAS a total of $19.44 for their share of the revenue.
It is also not known how much money the club’s management team, especially its chairman, has raised on their own to support the club’s activities.
KEY PLAYERS SET TO LEAVE
Tajeli Salamat, Shakir Hamzah and Kenji Rusydi are among the players who are expected to leave the Jaguars Den at Jurong East Stadium.
Shakir is already on the wanted list of another Singapore Premier League club, while Tajeli has been cryptic about his next move on Instagram.
He was red-carded in the last match against Lion City Sailors.
It is also alleged that the club had already started informing players about its plans for 2024 even before the final match against Balestier Khalsa was played.
Why they did so even before the season ended is a question which the management team has to answer and whether this had any impact on the final result in the clash against Balestier Khalsa on 25 November is unknown.
MAIN PHOTO: CHEW CHUN LIANG/TMSG SOURCE/TANJONG PAGAR
Drop us an email at hello@tmsg.sg if you are owed money by Tanjong Pagar United.