July 3, 2024

The Football Association of Singapore have fined our Technical Director Luka Lalic S$5000 for a post which made fun of the officiating during our 7-1 win over Albirex Niigata (S). I am still very annoyed by how this whole episode was handled, so let me dive into a few areas where I think the FAS really could have done better. It Was the Correct Charge for Luka Let me start off by saying that by the letter of the law, Luka Lalic is guilty of what he was accused of. He was accused of breaching Clause 92.1 of the Singapore Premier League 2024/2025 Regulations. By the letter of the law, sure he did breach it. Luka also accepted it, and “[acknowledged] that he could have acted differently to communicate his views on these topics in a more effective manner”. He also “expressed regret for his actions”. Let’s look at the offending post in question – Thank you Deepanraj Ganesan for the screenshot. By the letter of the law – it can be said to be disparaging because it seems that Luka meant to say that the VAR team is a bunch of clowns. I think he would have got away with it if his caption was “This is a goal, with VAR. That cannot be”, or “This is a goal, with VAR. We have to do better”. Those are probably more fine, because he is just stating facts. Anyone with half an eye can see this is an offside goal. But clowns? While it’s funny and I am sure supporters called the VAR team far, far worse, club staff and players must understand that their words carry more weight than that of the average layman, and so they should rightly be held to higher standards. Ok, so it was the correct charge, but should he have been charged, and was the fine excessive? Let’s dive into that. Luka Should Not Have Been Charged – Bad Optics I put myself in the shoes of the FAS. A club official just took a shit on our referees. However, the mistake was a really really poor one. It was an offside so clear that we called it from the stands. I remember being so confident that VAR would review it and disallow it. But hey, it wasn’t disallowed. Mistakes happen. Even the great English Premier League had a very similar incident, where Luis Diaz’s goal was wrongly disallowed due to a VAR error. The opposite of what happened, but no less important. In the aftermath, Jurgen Klopp called it a crazy decision, and said that the circumstances were very unfair. Virgil van Dijk said that he was losing faith in VAR. Both were not punished for their comments. The point of punishing players and officials for disparaging remarks is to ensure that matchgoers, footballers, and all involved in football do not lose faith in the institution. However, in this case, FAS should have taken a peek at how our friends in the EPL handled it and applied common sense. Yes, by the letter of the law, you can throw the book at Luka Lalic. But should you? When your officials made a monumental error and all Luka said was [clown emoji] [clown emoji] [clown emoji]? It’s like cheating on your wife, NOT APOLOGISING, and then pointing out to her that oh by the way I know I screwed up, but you are still not allowed to rant about it on IG – didn’t we say before that what happens in our marriage stays between us? Err hello, you made the mistake first right? I would have gone with a private / public warning for Luka Lalic, and then an APOLOGY for my officials making such an error. I also feel that the timing of these two statements together is not by coincidence. If you’re wondering why I bolded and underlined those words, it’s because if you read their statement carefully, FAS did not apologise. Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word Excuse me. Where is the apology? Where is the word “sorry”, or “apologise”? When supporters are aggrieved at a decision, when you’ve let your stakeholders down, the least you could do is apologise. We know that officials are human. The role of a referee is not an easy one. I took the refereeing course offered by FAS before and came out with a much greater appreciation for what our officials do week in week out. So let me be clear – referees can make mistakes. They are just like you and I. But unlike you and I, it seems that the organisation protects them to such a degree that it cannot apologise on their behalf. The effort it takes to craft such a media statement, artfully dodging the words “sorry”, “apologise”, “regret”, “let down”, or any word that would convey anything remotely resembling an apology is truly amazing. If only they had put such effort into their match previews. Not only are the bullet points not worthy of being stand-alone bullet points, the team news for Brunei DPMM is wrong. In the match right before this game, Farshad Noor was sent off for two yellow cards. Also, DPMM had already published on their website that their Aussie centreback Flottmann would be out for a long time with an ACL injury. At the time of publishing, Flottmann had already missed two games and the commentators had already discussed his injury. I am not even asking whoever came up with this to look up stats and love the game as much as I do. I am just asking him to watch the game and give a shit. That’s not too much to ask for, surely. Ok I digress. Back to the things FAS could have done better with this debacle. But ok la dammit, that preview didn’t come from an organisation that loves football. Ok really back this time. Luka’s Fine was Disproportionate So ok fine, you wanna set an example, you wanna

Chin Heng chips in with yet another guest article, this time detailing my time with him exploring Brunei. This might be useful for any Sailors or indeed any SPL fan who intends to make the trip across to watch an away game in Bandar Seri Begawan. We apologise for not being able to check out more sights as we were only there for 2 days 1 night – till next time! So you have probably heard the story by now – a few over-enthusiastic fans, including myself, booked a trip to Brunei to watch Sailors play against DPMM on 15th June. We assumed that the game would be in Brunei because, well, the SPL announced that it would be in Brunei when the fixtures were announced. Maybe we shouldn’t have put so much faith in Brunei DPMM and SPL. An announcement was made that the game would be relocated to Singapore on 18th June, just 8 days before the original date of 15th June. Fortunately, an extra 7 days was apparently more than enough for DPMM to fix the ‘technical issues’ that they couldn’t resolve over the 6 months of the off-season, and they finally played at the Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium on 22nd June against Geylang. What a game that was too, and I can only imagine what it would be like to watch a game in that majestic stadium ☹. Anyway, after Eddy and I decided to make lemonade with those Bruneian lemons and spend two days sightseeing in Brunei, we thought it would be a good idea to write some sort of guide to Brunei. DPMM will (probably) be playing the rest of their home games (maybe) in Brunei (perhaps) so our fellow fans could get a sense of what to expect, in case they wanted to make the trip to Bandar Seri Begawan for the next DPMM away game. (spoiler: we think it will be an enjoyable away day experience!) Currency You don’t need to visit the money changer before travelling to Brunei because the Brunei dollar is pegged to the Singapore Dollar at par (i.e. 1BND=1SGD). In Singapore, you may have encountered merchants who do not want to accept Brunei notes, but there is no such issue in Brunei, as Singapore notes and coins are widely circulated there. The only minor inconvenience we encountered was at a parking fee payment machine which did not accept Singapore notes, so we had to run to a nearby restaurant to ask to swap notes. Other than that, every shop we came across accepted Singapore dollars without batting an eyelid. Note that credit cards are not accepted at many smaller malls and restaurants, so plan the amount of cash you need to bring along accordingly. We also noticed that prices of fast food and major brands (like Nike/Adidas) are similar to or even slightly higher than Singapore, though food options at the night market was very cheap, with the prices of many items starting at a dollar. Getting to Brunei There are very few direct flight options from Singapore to Brunei, two to be exact. Singapore Airlines and Royal Brunei operate 1 daily flight each to a very small Brunei International Airport in Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital city of Brunei. The Singapore Airlines flights have slightly better timings for an away day as it arrives in Brunei in the late morning and flies out of Brunei in the afternoon, ideal for a 2 to 3 day trip over a weekend. As a result of the limited options, air ticket prices do tend to be on the expensive side for a 2-hour flight, and you can expect to pay between $500-$700 for a flight to Brunei. A cheaper option is available if you have previously accumulated miles under Singapore Airlines’ Krisflyer programme, subject to redemption availability. Krisflyer also runs occasional ‘Spontaneous Escapes’ promotions with 30% off redemption prices to certain locations, which was what Eddy and I took advantage of. Do note that some redemptions or purchases under promotions can be non-refundable. Eddy and I found out to our horror that ours was non-refundable, and that’s why we made our way to Brunei despite the game being relocated. Getting Around Brunei Once we had the flights sorted, we had to figure out how to get around in Brunei. Bandar Seri Begawan is a small city, but the public transport system is not very well developed. There is no subway system and only a handful of public bus services available. The best way to get around Bandar Seri Begawan is either to rent a car or use their ride hailing app Dart. We rented a car at $180 for 2 days and it turned out to be a brilliant decision – all major attractions in Bandar Seri Begawan were within a 15-minute drive, parking was cheap and easily available in most places, and at ~50 cents a litre, petrol was literally cheaper than water in Brunei (our petrol expenses added up to a grand total of $4 for the 2 days lol). With a car you also get the added advantage of leaving your bags inside while you explore the town, and given the super low crime rate in Brunei, this is definitely something we felt safe doing. The Stadium Even though the game was postponed, we dropped by the Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium anyway, perhaps hoping to pick up hints of the ‘technical issues’ that led to the relocation of the game. (Till today, Eddy and I don’t believe there were really any technical issues, but we have no proof, so … zip) The stadium was conveniently located next to the airport, and it took us only 7 minutes to drive there after picking up our rental car. There was nothing going on in the vicinity of the stadium, and we came across more stray dogs than humans in our short walk around the perimeter of the stadium, but what a beautiful stadium it was. The main grandstand