Venga to unveil manifesto for FAS elections

SINGAPORE — It has been two months since R Vengadasalam announced that he would assemble a team to compete in the upcoming Football Association of Singapore (FAS) elections. But now, the former Woodlands Wellington club manager is finally ready to take the next step in his election campaign.

TODAY understands Venga has called a meeting with the National Football League (NFL) and Island Wide League (IWL) clubs tonight, where he is set to unveil his team’s manifesto for the FAS elections.

However, Venga said he will not be revealing the identities of his team members during the meeting. Instead, the veteran football administrator will use this opportunity to share his team’s vision for local football, as well as gather feedback from the clubs on how they hope the new FAS office-bearers can improve the state of the sport here.

“We want to listen to the neglected clubs of the NFL, IWL and Women’s Football League (WFL),” Venga, 56, told TODAY. “We want to ask them what changes they want, how they want to effect these changes, and what sort of team they hope to be elected into office.

“I believe there must be constant engagement between the clubs and the football authorities in charge, which is something that has been missing so far in the current regime. So we want to note their requests and difficulties, and if my team is voted in, then we’ll be able to work on meeting these requests.”

Tonight’s event comes on the back of last week’s meetings between the FAS and their affiliates from the S.League, NFL and IWL, where office-bearers from the current FAS executive committee — led by vice-presidents Lim Kia Tong and Bernard Tan — presented the planned changes to the National Sports Associations’ (NSA) constitution.

Under the proposed constitution, those hoping to run for the positions of president and vice-president will need to be active in football at an association or international level for at least two of the past five years.

In addition, candidates will need to pass stringent Fifa-approved integrity checks in order to be eligible.

These constitutional proposals, which were designed in accordance with Fifa rules, will allow the FAS to hold an election for its council members for the very first time.

However, in order for the amendments to take effect, a majority of the 46 FAS affiliates and members will need to vote in favour of the proposal at the association’s annual general meeting (AGM) on Sept 24.

The uncertainty over whether this new Constitution will be approved is one of the reasons Venga remains reluctant to unveil his team. “I don’t want to reveal who is in my team yet until the Constitution is finalised because, if I do, the FAS might move the goal post to make it such that some of my guys can’t run,” explained Venga, who said he expects representatives from about 20 clubs to attend tonight’s meeting.

“There are pros and cons to the proposed constitutional changes, and we will be discussing this as well with the clubs during the meeting tonight, so that they’ll go into the FAS AGM with a clearer picture.”

Venga’s team is understood to be one of four potential groups intending to contest in the FAS elections. Lim, Hougang United chairman Bill Ng and another unnamed person are expected to form their own respective teams to contest the elections, which will likely be held at the end of the year.