July 15, 2004

There had already been 2 meetings between the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) & the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) about the installation of an artificial playing surface in Singapore but it has now taken a giant leap forwards after Fifa president Sepp Blatter further lent his support to the idea.

Blatter was in Singapore during a stopover before going to China for the Asian Cup.

He feels as a result of Singapore's scarcity of land & weather conditions, artificially turfed pitches are indispensable so he promises Fifa funds will be available for the pitches if needed.

Delighted by the news, FAS general secretary John Koh yesterday confirmed that they would be applying for the funds for the artificial playing surfaces through Fifa's Goal Project.

When asked what location have been chosen to install the artificially turfed pitches.

Koh answered FAS together with the SSC have identified several possible locations & the first stadium to try it out could be Jalan Besar Stadium.

Despite being opened just last year, the 6,000-seater Jalan Besar Stadium's grass pitch has consistently suffered through overuse & problems caused by insects & inclement weather.

Opinions about the installation of an artificial surface at Jalan Besar Stadium though have been mixed.

Woodlands Wellington player-coach Simon Clark, who played on English side Oldham's artificial turf in the 1990s, felt that players will not like it once they have seem the effects as  there is an unnatural bounce to the ball on artificial turf & it is hard on the legs as well.

Still he did not rule out the possibility that the new-style turfs are better now that technology have improved over the years.

The Singapore Sports School's football team train on an artificial surface at their Woodlands base & assistant coach Teng Wei Ken says there is little difference from a grass pitch.

Also he felt artificial pitches have the advantage of not being subject to weather conditions & the ball does travel faster, but that increases the quality of play as well.

The best benefit in his eyes is that being able to train on an artificial pitch is much better than on a poor quality grass ground as obviously there is a difference.