FAS explains why independent panel needed to handle NFL brawl hearing

SINGAPORE – A conflict of interest involving one of its top-brass Council members was why the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) decided to install an independent panel to investigate a brawl during a domestic football match.

In a lengthy statement issued on Saturday (Jan 6) night, the FAS was responding to a TODAY report on Thursday that FAS Council member Yakob Hashim was contemplating stepping down from his position because “many things were not transparent” at the association.

In particular, Mr Yacob – who is also the coach of NFL Division 1 club Yishun Sentek Mariners – took issue with how the FAS is handling its probe into a brawl between his club and Singapore Armed Forces Sports Association (Safsa).

On Nov 12 last year, a top of the table clash between Sentek Mariners and Safsa at the Jalan Besar Stadium descended into a mass brawl involving players and officials, with the police eventually called in.

A month later, the FAS appointed an independent panel consisting of two senior lawyers to investigate the incident. This was a departure from the association’s usual practice of tasking its full-time staff from the Competitions Division to conduct the investigations.

Writing on Facebook, Mr Yacob said: “I’m walking out of football… We have passion for the game but one mistake, they are going all out to kill you.”

He later told TODAY: ““I think it’s something that’s not right, I’m not being charged, it’s the club that’s being charged, where is the conflict of interest?”

The FAS disagreed.

Explaining why an independent panel was convened, the association said the “real difficulty in the conduct of this investigation, the commencement and presentation of the evidence” by FAS staff is “compounded by the fact that Yakob Hashim is a FAS Council member”.

“In view of this, a conflict of interest situation has therefore arisen,” the FAS said in the statement.

The association added that FAS president Lim Kia Tong and his executive committee members decided that there is “an undisputed need to appoint independent persons to carry out the duties in the stead of the full time staff”, so as to ensure “proper governance and to ensure full transparency and accountability”.

“Any defendant from Safsa and all right minded members of the public and the football fraternity must not entertain or be given the chance to entertain the perception or otherwise, that FAS is according its Council member unjustified and unfair advantage in the disciplinary proceedings,” the FAS said.

Adding that the appointment of an independent panel is “constitutional and within the powers of the Executive Committee”, the FAS said the roles of the said panel are to conduct investigations into the incident, to draft the charges, to present the evidence to prove the charges, and to make all necessary submission, including punishment, if required, on behalf of the FAS at the disciplinary committee’s hearing.

“They are not the ‘independent judges’ as certain quarters may perceive them to be,” the FAS stressed.

Reiterating that it is committed to being a transparent organisation, the FAS said the independent panel “act totally on their own without any direction from the Executive Committee or the Council”.

“FAS is confident that (they) will assist the disciplinary committee in passing a fair judgment to all concerned including any defendant from Yakob Hashim’s club,” it said.