FAS president says no players were smoking at half-time during Asian Cup qualifier

Jalan Besar Stadium, Monday, March 29, 2010 – Zainudin Nordin, the president of the Football Association of Singapore, has said a local newspaper report of national football team members smoking during the half-time of the crucial football game against Jordan in Amman is not correct.

At the FAS annual general meeting this afternoon, president Zainudin said: “It is also factually inaccurate to state as a matter of fact, as reported in the media article published on 10 March 2010 that at half-time, with Singapore trailing 0-1 to Jordan in the Asian Cup qualifying decider, a couple of players were smoking in the dressing room.”

Singapore lost the game 1-2 and failed to qualify for the 2011 Asian Cup by just one point. A media report after that game stated national players were smoking in the dressing room at half-time.

President Zainudin also mentioned that he has asked the media that published the report of the smoking to produce the names of the alleged smokers.

“We have asked the media that published this that if they maintain that players were indeed smoking in the confines of the dressing room or toilet within the dressing room, we seek their immediate cooperation and assistance to provide the names of these players that they have alleged to have smoked in the confines of the dressing room so that these players will be immediately referred to the FAS Disciplinary Committee to answer charges of breaching the National Team Code of Conduct,” he said.

The FAS president also sought to reassure football fans that the national football team doesn’t have a smoking culture.

“Please let me assure members that the there isn't a prevalent smoking culture among the Lions. FAS are aware that some of the players have picked up the bad habit of smoking and we will engage the Health Promotion Board to conduct talks and workshops for the players regularly to assist the players to stamp out this habit as part of our planned football sciences and medicine programme,” said president Zainudin.

The FAS president lauded the achievements of the national football team under coach Raddy Avramovic.

“While non-qualification for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup was a setback, the results also shows that Singapore are no longer the whipping boys in Asia but a team that can compete with the best on the continent. There is still room for improvement and more work to do, but we are getting there as the gap is definitely narrowing between the top Asian football nations and Singapore,” he said.