July 31, 2004

The S-League All-Stars' proposed match against Beijing Hyundai has been called off.

The Chinese First Division side, last season Double Cup winner winning the 2003 Chinese Super Cup & FA Cup, were supposed to play an S-League All Stars team on August 8.

However the S-League received word from Beijing that the club would not be able to make the trip.

S-League CEO Chan King Fook said Beijing Hyundai told them that they would have been unable to field their best team here due to injuries & China's continued participation in the Asian Cup, so they did not want to come to Singapore without their top players.

While injuries were stated as the official reason for the cancellation, many are not that sure wondering if there was more than meets the eye with politics being the main cause instead.

China had been unhappy over Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's trip to Taiwan 2 weeks ago & since then several Chinese delegations have cancelled their trip to Singapore with Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan, who was to have given a keynote address at the annual Monetary Authority of Singapore Lecture, the most prominent cancellation.