Minute’s silence before Thailand-S’pore friendly on Thursday

SINGAPORE — The friendly match between Thailand and Singapore in Korat at 8pm tomorrow (March 26) will proceed as planned, the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) revealed today.

The match had been in doubt following the passing of Singapore’s first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew on Monday morning. A week of national mourning until Sunday had been declared by the Government.

As a mark of respect, a minute’s silence will be observed before kick-off tomorrow.

Hosts Thailand have also agreed to wear their alternate jerseys instead of their home jersey colour of blue in order to allow Singapore to don their blue colour jerseys instead of their usual red. The Lions will also wear black armbands during the match.

Although the match is a friendly to mark 50 years of diplomatic relations between the two nations, Singapore captain Shahril Ishak said they want victory as a tribute to Mr Lee.

“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Mr Lee Kuan Yew,” he said. “A visionary leader, he built a beautiful and prosperous country which we are proud to call our own. His contributions cannot be measured in words and we will miss him deeply.”

“We are highly motivated during our training sessions and we are looking to give a very good account of ourselves in the match. We are determined to do well for our nation.”

Singapore national head coach Bernd Stange also said: “I could not ask for more from the players. They gave their all and it has been tough first training session for all of them. I also hope the players will do their best as a tribute to Mr Lee,” he stated.

StarHub will broadcast the match “live” on its free sports channel SuperSports Arena, which is available to all households with a cable point on 76.25MHz. StarHub TV customers can also access the channel on StarHub TV Channels 112 and 205.