Letter from Aaron Ong Beng Shen
While the national football team has lost its World Cup third-round qualifiers against China and Iraq, the grit displayed by the players meant that the Lions were not outclassed by their higher-ranked opponents.
We might have got some points if key refereeing decisions had gone our way. However, many fans will no doubt be wondering how we would have fared if our squad had been at full strength.
Apart from injuries, which cannot be helped, we could have done without handicapping ourselves by preventing first-team player Hariss Harun from playing in these crucial games.
While National Service (NS) is compulsory regardless of who the person is, it is relatively unclear how keeping Hariss in NS during this period benefits Singapore more than releasing him to represent his country.
We are already the underdogs in these games. Let us not gift our opponents any further advantage.
No one is asking for full exemption from NS but surely it would not be too difficult to grant our Lions' youngest captain a few weeks off to prepare for and play in potentially history-making matches for our country.
Perhaps a policy review may be required, to examine what NS truly means to us all. Keeping athletes from representing the nation does seem to reduce their total contribution to our country.
A small tweak in the rules may allow Singapore to reap the benefits of having our best possible team in all competitions, while those athletes would experience only a minor disruption in their NS commitments.
While the national football team has lost its World Cup third-round qualifiers against China and Iraq, the grit displayed by the players meant that the Lions were not outclassed by their higher-ranked opponents.
We might have got some points if key refereeing decisions had gone our way. However, many fans will no doubt be wondering how we would have fared if our squad had been at full strength.
Apart from injuries, which cannot be helped, we could have done without handicapping ourselves by preventing first-team player Hariss Harun from playing in these crucial games.
While National Service (NS) is compulsory regardless of who the person is, it is relatively unclear how keeping Hariss in NS during this period benefits Singapore more than releasing him to represent his country.
We are already the underdogs in these games. Let us not gift our opponents any further advantage.
No one is asking for full exemption from NS but surely it would not be too difficult to grant our Lions' youngest captain a few weeks off to prepare for and play in potentially history-making matches for our country.
Perhaps a policy review may be required, to examine what NS truly means to us all. Keeping athletes from representing the nation does seem to reduce their total contribution to our country.
A small tweak in the rules may allow Singapore to reap the benefits of having our best possible team in all competitions, while those athletes would experience only a minor disruption in their NS commitments.
ORIGINAL SOURCE
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