Football Association of Singapore (FAS) council member Harman Ali is challenging a provisional suspension order which has been meted out by the FAS Executive Committee (Exco), and a referral to the Ethics Committee.
Harman, an appointment holder of Island Wide League affiliate GFA Victoria, has sought legal representation through Glenn Knight, a senior lawyer who was the first director of the Commercial Affairs Department and a former senior deputy public prosecutor.
The FAS has also hired a legal firm to handle the issue in relation to the suspension and referral to the Ethics Committee.
How the FAS was able to mete out a suspension order albeit a provisional one without allowing an aggrieved party to have a right of reply is unknown, especially coming days after its President Bernard Tan spoke about the FAS believing in the principles of “fairness and justice” when it announced the lifting of life bans of four footballers.
In response to the Straits Times, the FAS said “the FAS can confirm that a council member has been provisionally suspended pending an inquiry by the FAS ethics committee on a potential breach.
“The suspension is due to the pending inquiry and the council member’s duties have been reassigned accordingly.
“As the inquiry is still ongoing, we will not comment further until the FAS ethics committee, an independent judicial body, completes its findings.”
Harman responded and said “I do not wish for this to be litigated via the press.”
“My lawyer, Mr Glenn Knight, will act on my behalf and deal with FAS directly.
“In the interests of preserving the integrity of the proceedings, I shall refrain from commenting further on this matter.”
Harman’s provisional suspension stems from the FAS Review Committee report leaks to the media back in June 2023, following Singapore’s shambolic showing at the Southeast Asian Games men’s football tournament in Cambodia.
Singapore finished bottom of Group B with only one point, and was the worst performer at the SEA Games men’s football event.
Back then, TMSG published a story about what was discovered during the FAS review of the SEA Games disaster after reviewing parts of the review.
The FAS did not make public what was discovered during the investigative process but only released 10 recommendations, which only helped reinforce how backward the state of Singapore football was.
Aside from Harman, other members of the review committee included Razali Saad, Lim Tong Hai, and Jita Singh.
When the TMSG story was blurbed for release, a stop-publish order was issued by legal firm Advocatus, hired by FAS, which TMSG ignored.
The same legal firm is understood to be representing FAS now in dealing with the matter.
MAIN PHOTOS: HARMAN ALI, AMAZON