FUCKING USELESS! THIS ALSO CAN ALLOW? SLEEPING ON THE JOB FOR YEARS?
<table width="620" border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td>The Electric New Paper :</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Football</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="font12">'Please change S-League ball'</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Coaches and players feel that the official match ball is not up to scratch</td> </tr> <tr> <td>AS THE saying goes, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'.</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="font12"> <table width="100%" align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr> <td class="font12w">By Ali Akbar Kasim</td> </tr></tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="font12">14 March 2011</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="font12">[email protected]
AS THE saying goes, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'.
But several coaches and players in the S-League will beg to differ with that adage when it pertains to the football they use daily.
Currently, and for the past decade, the S-League has been using the Mikasa PKC55BR as its official match ball.
As part of a sponsorship agreement between Mikasa and the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), signed in 2000, clubs in the S-League also use the same model of ball during training.
But when The New Paper asked a number of coaches and players in the S-League what they thought of the match ball, the response was overwhelmingly one-sided: 'We need to replace it.'
Said Hougang United coach Aide Iskandar: 'The ball is the most important tool in our sport.
'No offence to Mikasa, but we should be using a Nike or adidas ball, because that is (often) the official ball used in international tournaments, and we need to be comfortable with it.
'When the clubs or the national team go overseas for those competitions, how are we going to adapt to the other ball?
'This is one reason Germany do so well in international tournaments - one year before, they're already using the same ball in their league.'
Different flight
The issue of adapting to the Nike football used in the AFC Cup and other tournaments was echoed by another S-League coach who declined to be named.
He said: 'The Nike ball (used in the AFC) is very different (from the Mikasa model), and that works against the players. There is definitely a great difference in the flight of the ball.'
Comparisons aside, according to the coaches, the Mikasa model is not ideal.
Said another unnamed coach: 'The ball is a little heavy. When brand new, it's OK, but after two or three weeks the elasticity isn't there any more and it becomes very hard.
'The ball must be improved.'
When contacted, a spokesman from Mikasa said that the brand does not have a newer model than the PKC55BR, which was released to the market during the late 1990s and is a Fifa-approved match ball.
When asked why the FAS has not decided on a change of match balls over the last 10 years, FAS secretary general Winston Lee said that the Mikasa footballs are approved by Fifa and, thus, meet the performance criteria of world football governing body.
Said Lee: 'It is not uncommon around the world to have one brand of ball for the league and another for AFC and Fifa tournaments.
'Understanding the need of our teams to adapt to another brand of ball before major tournaments, Mikasa has always magnanimously allowed our teams to train with the competition balls.'
The sponsorship agreement between FAS and Mikasa expired at the end of last year before it was renewed.
Offer
Towards the end of last season, sporting brand Mitre, which is the ball sponsor for the Scottish Premier League and the Carling Cup in England, had offered to be the match ball sponsor for the S-League from this season onwards.
Said Alfred Toh, general manager of Mitre's local distributor Teamlink Marketing Pte Ltd: 'We put in a proposal to the FAS and we were in deep discussions for a few months.
'In the end, they went for an extension with Mikasa. I suppose they have been with them for a long time.'
Said Lee: 'As a sponsor, Mikasa has always put the interest of our game first.
'They have never hesitated to go beyond their sponsorship obligations when the need arises and they always do it without asking for more commercial benefits or publicity.
'They offered us a better sponsorship for another six years after their contract ended last season.'
The renewed agreement came much to the chagrin of some players in the S-League.
Said Tampines Rovers striker Aleksandar Duric, who has been playing here since 1999: 'Honestly, they should have changed (the match ball) a long time ago.
'Nothing against Mikasa but they have to improve the ball. Nike and adidas change their balls every year.'
When asked what is wrong with the ball specifically, Duric replied: 'The hardness, the heavy weight, the kind of material used; it's a very old kind of ball.
'Look at all the top leagues in the world, nobody is using this ball. If it's a sponsorship issue, we need to change.'
Sure, but not for the next six years at least.
</td></tr></tbody></table>
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<table width="620" border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td>The Electric New Paper :</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Football</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="font12">'Please change S-League ball'</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Coaches and players feel that the official match ball is not up to scratch</td> </tr> <tr> <td>AS THE saying goes, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'.</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="font12"> <table width="100%" align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr> <td class="font12w">By Ali Akbar Kasim</td> </tr></tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="font12">14 March 2011</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="font12">[email protected]
AS THE saying goes, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'.
But several coaches and players in the S-League will beg to differ with that adage when it pertains to the football they use daily.
Currently, and for the past decade, the S-League has been using the Mikasa PKC55BR as its official match ball.
As part of a sponsorship agreement between Mikasa and the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), signed in 2000, clubs in the S-League also use the same model of ball during training.
But when The New Paper asked a number of coaches and players in the S-League what they thought of the match ball, the response was overwhelmingly one-sided: 'We need to replace it.'
Said Hougang United coach Aide Iskandar: 'The ball is the most important tool in our sport.
'No offence to Mikasa, but we should be using a Nike or adidas ball, because that is (often) the official ball used in international tournaments, and we need to be comfortable with it.
'When the clubs or the national team go overseas for those competitions, how are we going to adapt to the other ball?
'This is one reason Germany do so well in international tournaments - one year before, they're already using the same ball in their league.'
Different flight
The issue of adapting to the Nike football used in the AFC Cup and other tournaments was echoed by another S-League coach who declined to be named.
He said: 'The Nike ball (used in the AFC) is very different (from the Mikasa model), and that works against the players. There is definitely a great difference in the flight of the ball.'
Comparisons aside, according to the coaches, the Mikasa model is not ideal.
Said another unnamed coach: 'The ball is a little heavy. When brand new, it's OK, but after two or three weeks the elasticity isn't there any more and it becomes very hard.
'The ball must be improved.'
When contacted, a spokesman from Mikasa said that the brand does not have a newer model than the PKC55BR, which was released to the market during the late 1990s and is a Fifa-approved match ball.
When asked why the FAS has not decided on a change of match balls over the last 10 years, FAS secretary general Winston Lee said that the Mikasa footballs are approved by Fifa and, thus, meet the performance criteria of world football governing body.
Said Lee: 'It is not uncommon around the world to have one brand of ball for the league and another for AFC and Fifa tournaments.
'Understanding the need of our teams to adapt to another brand of ball before major tournaments, Mikasa has always magnanimously allowed our teams to train with the competition balls.'
The sponsorship agreement between FAS and Mikasa expired at the end of last year before it was renewed.
Offer
Towards the end of last season, sporting brand Mitre, which is the ball sponsor for the Scottish Premier League and the Carling Cup in England, had offered to be the match ball sponsor for the S-League from this season onwards.
Said Alfred Toh, general manager of Mitre's local distributor Teamlink Marketing Pte Ltd: 'We put in a proposal to the FAS and we were in deep discussions for a few months.
'In the end, they went for an extension with Mikasa. I suppose they have been with them for a long time.'
Said Lee: 'As a sponsor, Mikasa has always put the interest of our game first.
'They have never hesitated to go beyond their sponsorship obligations when the need arises and they always do it without asking for more commercial benefits or publicity.
'They offered us a better sponsorship for another six years after their contract ended last season.'
The renewed agreement came much to the chagrin of some players in the S-League.
Said Tampines Rovers striker Aleksandar Duric, who has been playing here since 1999: 'Honestly, they should have changed (the match ball) a long time ago.
'Nothing against Mikasa but they have to improve the ball. Nike and adidas change their balls every year.'
When asked what is wrong with the ball specifically, Duric replied: 'The hardness, the heavy weight, the kind of material used; it's a very old kind of ball.
'Look at all the top leagues in the world, nobody is using this ball. If it's a sponsorship issue, we need to change.'
Sure, but not for the next six years at least.
</td></tr></tbody></table>
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