Kelong is still Kelong in any other guise
Former Australian international Abbas Saad will be arriving in
But ridding myself of emotion, I had questioned
in football forums if it was a good idea and was immediately told of the likes
of yellow ribbon project (
In other words, some were defending Abbas to the extent that he did no wrong like Abbas claimed
that he ‘helped’ his friends and was ‘benefiting his team.
Unfortunately, Kelong
is still Kelong in any other guise.
People are now willing to accept
match-fixing in this case as it involved their idol and that show how
sentiments can cloud judgments.
That why we must keep our guard high as
the
Looking at the Sunday Times interview
with Abbas Saad, it is
clear he believed he did no wrong as he continue to maintain he is 'helping' a
friend only and had scored goals.
But match-fixing does need one side to
give chance and the other to score so it is Kelong.
Yes, then it is wrong no matter how
beautiful one put it; like 'helping' a friend or ‘benefiting’ his team.
Before going on, I must emphasize I am
not stopping any ex-match-fixer a chance back to the game to redeem themselves
for it will not be the first time ever S-league saw a club employed a ex-match-fixer
as coach for back in 98, TPUFC done so and the person never re-committed.
The difference in why I opposed Abbas is the belief of the persons involved.
One was sorry he ever did it while the
other (guess who) does not believe he is ever wrong.
Abbas continue
to maintain he is not wrong and that is the problem as players and coaches are
at the front line of the battle against the bookies thus can one image an
S-league coach claiming kelong is not wrong as long
as it benefit his team.
He is breaking kelong into 'bad' kelong &
'good' kelong based on
1) benefiting his team (but nevertheless harming the other side and maybe
oneself in future as they cannot always fixed it in your favour)
2) helping his friends (or in truth the bookies)
3) the fans are all winners (which is the most bullshit as asked the Selangor fans in Malaysia if they felt cheated out of a
Malaysia Cup Final thanks to the kelong in the
semi-final so there are losers and it could even be Singapore one day as I
already wrote; the bookies cannot always fixed it in your favour)
It is a flawed argument as kelong is not bad only when it is fixed to go against him.
At this stage, we are still
battling kelong on our doorstep as seen in the AFC
Cup match - Home vs Valencia - for the bookies will
not stop at that thus we need everybody member of the football family to
understand match-fixing of any type is wrong.
That is the only way to
battle kelong.
Abbas,
however do not shared this belief, and it is troublesome for we have seem
match-fixing over the last few years like Liaoning as
they shared different beliefs on what match-fixing mean.
That why we need him (or not as one does
not even know if he is a decent coach) only if he was willing to accept
S-league definition of match-fixing which is it is wrong under any
circumstances but judging from the Sunday Times, he clearly does not share
that.
That why I had opposes his return to
coaching in the Republic for corruption start creeping in once we start
deceiving ourselves.
Then, the era of FAS new president Zainudin Nordin will be remembered
wrongly as the start when we lose our fight against the deadly disease kelong as we lower our definition of match-fixing and I
rather take no risk as the bookies are waiting to bounce on any weakness.
We have seem how hard it is
to get rid once it is attached as our regional neighbors continue to be plague
by it and I rather be the bad guy in opposing Abbas Saad for Singapore football is my only concern