Just barely days after the Request for Proposal for a tenth club to be part of the Singapore Premier League in 2024 onwards closed for submissions, the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) president Bernard Tan has said that there is “no guarantee” that a tenth club in the league will materialise next year.
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He made this revelation in his Christmas Day message which was posted on the FAS website.
“While there is no guarantee that a tenth club will materialise next year, this exercise will inform us of the interest and the conditions, and lay the foundations for the future.”
He added that he was “pleased to report that we have had a good response to the RFP, have received several indications of interest and will be collaborating closely with prospective parties over the next month to guide them in developing their proposals.”
But the tenth club in the SPL may not be a certainty in the end when 2024 arrives.
TMSG understands that Woodlands Lions (photo below) and Tengah FC are among two local clubs which have submitted their interests to be the new kid on the SPL block.
Tan’s message stems from two possibilities – the submissions do not meet the criteria set, or that the submissions were just not good enough to be considered and would take more time for the prospective clubs to crystallise their ideas and financial management and to prove that they will be able to sustain participation in the long-term.
PRIVATISING THE LEAGUE
“There has been talk about a privatised league,” Tan said, rather strangely in his message.
Strange because privatising the league is not mere talk but has been announced as part of the Unleash The Roar project.
When the Government announced the Unleash The Roar initiative in 2021, conditions for privatising the league was supposed to already have been in place by 2022, with execution already kicking in between 2023 to 2027.
Read TMSG’s earlier story.
2023 is about to end and 2024 beckons, and Tan still seems to suggest that it is just “talk” and not a government commitment made when UTR was announced.
He also appeared to address why the new clubs are supposed to be self-sufficient and not rely on subsidies.
“To grow the game, we clearly need to bring in more private money into the league.
“As such, we were very clear that new clubs should be predominantly funded by private entities and not rely on annual subsidies from the public sector.”
However, this does not address the fact that Albirex Niigata, which will transition to a local club in 2024, does not need to fulfil this requirement.
MAIN PHOTO: THE STRAITS TIMES
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