November 23, 2004

Singapore have earned 2 nominations for the AFC Awards night with Home United in the Asian Football Confederation Club Team of the Year award while referee Shamsul Maidin is in for the Match Official of the Year award.

Competing against the Protectors are AFC Champions League finalists Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia & South Korea's Seongnam Chunma meaning the Bishan-based have few chance of winning the award. Al Ittihad are 6-time Saudi league champions while Seongnam have won the K-League 3 times in the past 4 seasons. Furthermore the 2 teams are set to clash in the two-legged AFC Champions League final.

Just to be nominated though is already an achievement & Protectors coach is well delighted with the recognition AFC have given to the club.

The Englishman said we are both delighted & honoured to be nominated for this prestigious award, especially when you see the quality and the size of the other nominees. We are only a minnow when compared to Al Ittihad & Seongnam, & it is a great credit to our players & administration that we have been recognised on an AFC level. The players are very proud to be nominated & it is a great reward for their season where some of them have played over 55 games in 10 months. The squad has some excellent professionals & are a credit to the development of football in Singapore.

He also added that the nomination will spur the Protectors on further after finishing second in the S-League & reaching the AFC Cup semi-finals.

He said the nomination is a positive recognition for Singapore football & the S-League, & we see it as a step on the ladder to success. We havve said before that we want to be the best club in South East Asia & this nomination must be a recognition of that goal. Despite our comparative size we are continuing to plan for 2005 & want to succeed at every level we can. More & more of our players are being recognised at international level so we must also be doing something right at the developmental stages.

For referee Shamsul Maidin, who is in the running for the Match Official of the Year award, he is equally delighted as the whole of the Protectors.

Shamsul Maidin said he is up against some of the bigger countries referees & it is already an achievement. So it no longer matter if he won but he would mostly certainly be over the moon if he did.

Shamsul, who this year refereed in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Olympic qualifiers & the Asian Cup, is up against China's Lu Jun, Iran's Moradi Masoud & Lebanon's Talaat Naim.