Tengah Football Club, founded in 2017, has announced that they will be the Singapore Premier League’s (SPL) tenth competing team in when the 2024-2025 season begins.
The club made their public announcement through their social media pages on 17 February.
However, the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) has been silent on this major local development.
“We’re proud to announce that Tengah FC has received the in-principle approval by FAS to compete in the Singapore Premier League 2024/25 season!” Tengah shouted on their socials.
“Get ready to witness our team’s passion, dedication, and skill as we take on some of the best teams in the league!”
Actually they will need to take on all the teams in the league if they are accepted.
There was a huge of activity on social media chatgroups after the club made its pronouncement.
A few fans wondered if it was legitimate or a hoax.
Afterall shouldn’t an announcement have been made by the FAS, explaining which stadium they will occupy, how many clubs made submissions in the tender exercise in December, and what was it about their submission which won the hearts of Bernard Tan and his executive committee ahead of Woodlands Lions, which was the other club which also made a bid for the slot.
And what exactly is meant by an in-principle approval?
Does Tengah FC still have criteria it needs to meet?
Has the club provided the $2 million cash-in-hand guarantee?
Which stadium will the club occupy?
And if there was going to be a tenth club, shouldn’t they already be participating in the pre-season Cup competition which is being organised ahead of the season proper?
The administrative process in this announcement brings forth a set of question marks about the way the FAS administrative team manages itself, considering that even the major announcements about the changes in the league were actually announced by Albirex Niigata before the FAS made the information public.
TENGAH WHO?
Tengah FC was Formed in 2017, and played in the Island Wide League (IWL) in 2023.
But since 2017, they have had two other names prior to becoming known as Tengah FC.
They were first seen as Kallang Sportif Huskies FC, and then rebranded to Woodlands United.
It is not known when they took on Tengah FC when they took part in the IWL in 2023, with all the information available on its social media history.
The IWL is the fourth-tier league, after the SPL and Singapore Football League (SFL) Divisions 1 and 2.
Tengah lost 2-1 to Bedok South Avenue SC in the IWL final but both teams were promoted to the SFL 2.
Tengah is registered as a private limited company with a $1 paid up capital, according to the business registry and the company was set up in July 2023.
But this is not exactly a red flag as the entity can amend this as they progress, and source for investments.
The architect behind the bid is Louis Amalorpavanathan, a former player who also runs a security consultancy, which is where the registered address of the club has been listed at.
MAIN PHOTO: TENGAH FC