By Bryan Huang
Content Producer
bryanh.sph@gmail.com

 

Singapore football seems to have been pressing the drama button repeatedly these past few weeks.

When my editor mentioned the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) press conference (which was held on Wednesday) earlier in the week, we both figured it'd be a straight-forward affair with perhaps one or two hints towards the future of the national squad and some clarification on whether the axed Lions would get a second chance to redeem themselves.

RADDY'S PHONE ANALOGY

But I surely wouldn't have guessed that we'd all be given a lesson in mobile phone shopping.

National coach Raddy Avramovic gave the attending media a piece of his mind on buying phones, with his little analogy when asked about rumours that local football hero Fandi Ahmad might become his assistant coach.

"I think this reminds me of something," Avramovic said. "If you go to a Sony shop and you ask...agent of Sony which mobile phone he will recommend you, I don't think he will recommend you Samsung or Motorola."

His quote, reported in The New Paper on Thursday, left many people wondering what he was implying.

I think Avramovic was using that analogy to describe his lack of options in football. Either that, or he really dislikes Sony Ericsson phones.

Come on, Sony Ericssons are perfectly fine. I quite like my old, trusty K800i. The Samsung I carried proved to be a bit too delicate for a car door, and my current Motorola Milestone seems to annoy me a lot more than the brochure said it would.

Mobile phones should be communication devices first, and lifestyle devices second.

Ask anyone who has had his or her phone die on her in a critical moment without another phone in sight, whether he or she, with hindsight, would've given up all the apps and other fluffy stuff just for a few extra bars of battery life.

Chances are, they would. If not, it wasn't critical enough a moment.

Avramovic, what's wrong with a "Sony Ericsson" (local option) that works? (Of course, having a Samsung phone that can fake an incoming call may be somewhat interesting.

There's also the little problem of conflicting statements from the FAS.

Earlier in the week, The New Paper carried an article that quoted a source saying Avramovic had offered to quit after December's Suzuki Cup debacle.

At Wednesday's press conference, the Lion's coach, however, said he did not. At the same time, he also accused the media of telling lies.

A short distance away, after the same conference, FAS general secretary Winston Lee was saying that Avramovic had, indeed, offered to quit after the Suzuki Cup.

I'm trying to imagine a split screen of both making their statements being played side-by-side, one after the other.

At least Arsenal's Denilson had the option to defend himself by saying that his critical comments about teammate Cesc Fabregas were 'misquoted' by Brazilian television. I don't think that's much of an option here in FAS' case.

THE QUESTIONS REMAIN...

Did Avramovic offer to quit, or did he not? And if he did, why did he say he did not and that the media had reported lies? Or was it subject to the interpretation of what he had told FAS himself after the Suzuki Cup?

More details will no doubt surface in coming days regarding this divisive affair.

If Avramovic did not offer his head, why did the FAS general secretary say he did? Was it just to placate the public after the uproar over what had happened?

And as for the phones...is Avramovic really implying that our local football talent pool has too little options for his liking?

Or does he really not want to buy a Sony Ericsson phone?