October 30, 2004
Yet again the application of
It is a case of the bank guarantee no longer being enough & the ultimatum
has upset Cameroonian club Planet FC, as they were previously only told to give
a $500,000 bank guarantee.
They have now
hinted at playing elsewhere with club honorary president Richard Ng, who is in
Cambodia to source for sponsors, was critical of the S-League's request made
earlier this week.
The 53-year-old
managing director of construction company Crystalene
International said they have no way of finding that much money but later, after
negotiating, the amount was reduced to $300,000 cash & a $300,000 bank
guarantee with so much money taken away from them, where are we going to find
funds for ourselves themselves.
Ng claims to have
raised $100,000 so far.
With the clock tickingaway - he has to raise the money within a fortnight
- he said that he plans to have further ttalks with the S-League & if that
fails, he may even take Planet FC to
He threaten the
S-league saying the people in Cambodia are very excited about what they have to
offer - using football as a bridge for business so over there in Cambodia, he
will have no problems.
When told of Ng's
comments, S-League deputy CEO How Seen Yong replied that the league will stand
firm.
How said they will
not be swayed by their threat to play elsewhere. Ultimately, the S-league must
do things that are right for the league for Planet FC a foreign team with
little knowledge so it is important they have a sound financial standing.
Planet FC also have
no excuse as it was the case for both foreign clubs already in the S-league
with Sinchi, the S-League's first foreign club, having
their accounts checked when they applied to join the competition but they were
not required to submit any bank guarantee. For Albirex
Niigata's case they needed to put up a bank guarantee but the amount was not
known.