October 22, 2023

It is not often that we can say a team that picked up 3 yellow card and 2 red cards were not punished adequately, but this is a view that I hope to be able to defend in this post-match thoughts article. While the Sailors picked up an expected win, and have one foot in the semi-finals, I think some of Tanjong Pagar’s conduct was very unsavoury, bordering on being thuggish. Especially in light of recent events involving referees, I hope that something can be done by FAS to warn all teams in the league against such conduct. Let’s dive right into it. Shakir is a Lucky, Lucky Boy Quite how Shakir Hamzah escaped a red card this game is beyond me. First Incident He should have received a yellow card as early as the 10th minute of the game. He slid in on Richairo Zivkovic and conceded a penalty after his trailing leg swept our star striker off his feet. While I can understand a player debating with the referee about whether the penalty call was legitimate, I don’t think we can excuse this. You be the judge. In my opinion, the aggression with which he runs to the referee, and then repeatedly encroaches on his space, forcing him to first backpedal, and then second, put out a hand, is worthy of a yellow card. I was quite surprised the referee didn’t give it. The hand out should have been the final warning. It effectively says to Shakir – back off, or you’re receiving a booking. Instead, Shakir repeatedly walks towards the back-pedalling referee, pushing his body into the protective hand of the referee. All this time, the verbal volleys don’t stop, even as his teammates try their best to stop him. Thuggish behaviour. Second Incident His anger didn’t stop here. A few minutes later, still seething at the penalty award earlier, Shakir kicks out at Maxime Lestienne even though Maxime was already dribbling away from goal after a quick throw from Izwan (more on this later). No intention to get the ball, he just swings a leg to the back of Maxime’s calf and catches him. Thuggish behaviour. A deserved yellow, nothing more. Third Incident In the 51st minute, Anu mistimes a tackle and seconds later, Hami commits a tactical foul on Shahrin Saberin who is breaking away at pace through the midfield. Both were challenges worthy of a yellow card, and the referee rightly gave yellows to both of them. However, once again, Shakir runs after the referee from a real distance away, and leads a pack of Jaguars to hound him. See the gif for yourself below. Look out for Shakir steaming in from the left. In fact, he comes in with so much pace he almost knocks the referee off-balance a little. The referee can also be seen to be wiping his face, so I suppose the shouting was so intense that he felt some saliva come onto his face. Again, thuggish behaviour. He is already on a yellow card at this point – so how does he escape a second yellow card for this? Surely the referee cannot be encouraging such behaviour. Just a week ago, Wan Tung Han, a senior referee was assaulted on the pitch after one of his decisions angered a player in an FA Cup match between East Coast United and GFA Victoria. That was in an amateur game. Now, let me make it clear, I am not condoning it just because the player who assaulted the referee was not a professional. I hope the police deals with him accordingly. But here’s some food for thought for us all – if our senior professionals are acting with such disrespect to the referees, then what kind of example are they setting for the rest of us weekend warriors who play in Sunday league games or amateurs in IWL? How about kids back home who think that this is acceptable? I hope the FA has a chat with clubs to ensure that there is no repeat of such scenes. After the chat, that’s fair warning, and if any player persists in such behaviour, they should be awarded a yellow card. A signal needs to be sent to try to stamp such behaviour out at all levels. Tanjong Pagar Should Change Their Animal Also, on a slightly light-hearted note, perhaps TPU should consider changing their animal. They are not jaguars, because … The screencap would suggest that they very much hunt in packs – it almost looks like the referee is handing out free Taylor Swift tickets or something. I repeat the points I made above about the example it sets for players all around Singapore. Tajeli Loses His Cool I’ve left the worst of the thuggishness for last. Tajeli completely loses his cool in the 88th minute, kicking out at Richairo, HARD, for absolutely no reason at all. Richairo had intercepted a loose touch from him, and there wasn’t any hint of a hard tackle or anything – it was 100% clean. I don’t quite know why Tajeli did it, but I can accept that a player sometimes loses his cool and does something inexplicable. I guess this is one of those occasions. He let his team down because they now lose him for the rest of the Cup. With Blake also suspended for their final group game, they have managed to turn a comfortable situation in the group into a real disaster. Richairo picked up a deserved yellow card for his retaliation, but I would say it takes a real saint to not be affected by a crazy challenge like this. I am glad he did not do more. Blake’s Yellow Cards His first yellow card was an interesting one. The commentator referred to it as a completely needless one, and characterised his action to push Izwan as one intended to antagonise the keeper. I don’t think it was that simple. Blake is usually a combative player but I believe