Rugby match axed as Sports Hub’s woes mount

SINGAPORE — After making hasty changes to several high-profile events — the latest being the cancellation of an international rugby friendly between the Asia Pacific Dragons and the Maori All Blacks — it was announced yesterday the National Stadium will play host to the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup next month.

But the state of the pitch, which has been heavily criticised in the past week, would still come under close scrutiny during the tournament: To allow for enough time for the pitch to recover, the 55,000-seater stadium will not host the full complement of matches. Three of the matches — or half of the games in the group stage — will be held at an alternative venue, likely to be Jalan Besar Stadium, which has a capacity of 7,000.

The AFF had threatened to move the Group B matches to another venue due to the poor playing condition of the pitch.

It is understood that all three of the group matches involving Singapore — against Thailand, Malaysia and Myanmar, which is helmed by former Lions coach Avramovic Radojko — will be played at the National Stadium, while the rest could be played elsewhere.

Under the format of the tournament, the semi-final matches and the final will be played over two legs — home and away — at venues provided by the countries that qualify. Should Singapore get to the semi-final and the final, the National Stadium will host the home ties of both of the two-leg clashes.

The decision to confirm Singapore as co-hosts with Vietnam was made during a meeting of AFF chiefs on Monday in Laos, where the qualifying rounds for the region’s five lower-ranked teams were held.

AFF secretary-general Azzuddin Ahmad said: “We are confident that the Sports Hub will continue to do what is necessary to deliver a good-quality playable pitch for the tournament. They have postponed a concert and now, a rugby match scheduled for Nov 15 has also been cancelled. We are thankful to them for this.”

The National Stadium’s operator SportsHub Pte Ltd (SPHL) yesterday confirmed the cancellation of the rugby friendly — a decision that it said was reached last week at a meeting with the event’s promoter, Carinat Sports Marketing.

Carinat managing director Job Phelps, who is based in Hong Kong, said: “Fans in Singapore are going to miss watching two world-class rugby teams in action, but we understand that the Singapore Sports Hub wants to get the pitch to recover in time and we want to help.”

SHPL chief operating officer Oon Jin Teik said the cancellation was part of the company’s concerted efforts to enhance pitch recovery. “We are still in open discussions with the event organisers to explore alternative options for rugby fans in Singapore. More details will be released at a later date,” he said.

However, the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) said in a statement that it had initiated the pull-out. “The safety of our players is paramount and we were unable to get the assurances we needed that the pitch was playable,” said Mr Nigel Cass, NZRU general manager of planning and operations.

He added: “We feel somewhat let down that this has happened at this late stage.”

SHPL had earlier moved the stage away from the pitch for Mariah Carey’s concert on Friday and postponed a Jay Chou concert from Nov 8 to Dec 27. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY DAN GUEN CHIN