Member of Parliament (MP) for MacPherson SMC Tin Pei
Ling has joined S.League club Geylang International as a club
advisor ahead of the new season.
The 32-year-old was unveiled in her latest role on Wednesday
evening (10 February) at SAFRA Tampines. She will work with Geylang
in their efforts to reach out to the community including providing
guidance in areas like corporate social responsibility and
grassroots football programmes, as well as fund-raising
activities.
Tin, who will be the first woman advisor of Geylang, cited
her passion for developing youth as one of the reasons for
accepting the club’s invitation. She hopes the young Eagles will
help inspire their peers and be role models for the next
generation.
“So I hope that through sports, through football, we can
engage a larger community and continue to cultivate younger
Singaporeans,” she told the assembled
reporters.
“I think this is something that is definitely a very
meaningful endeavour. These are the things that really inspire me
and I hope to be able to work closely with Geylang in this
respect.”
New chairman reshaping Geylang
At the same event, Geylang also unveiled Epson Singapore as
their main sponsor for the upcoming season. One of the world’s
largest manufacturers of printers and projectors, Epson will
provide printing and imaging equipment and services to support the
club’s operations - the sponsorship value is estimated to be around
$100,000.
Apart from Epson, Geylang also revealed a list of 11 other
sponsors or partners, including New Balance, who will provide boots
for the senior and Prime League teams, as well as kit sponsor
THORB.
The appointment of Tin to help in community outreach and the
influx of sponsors are the results of the efforts of new chairman
Ben Teng to reshape the club since taking over last
December.
The 41-year-old and his management team have secured new
sponsors within one and a half months by working “relentlessly”,
having approached close to 50 organisations.
On the pitch, the club added new and exciting signings to
bolster their squad, which has an average age of 26. Only four
players were retained as nine former LionsXII players such as
Gabriel Quak and Faritz Hameed arrived while Hasrin Jailani, who
was part of the 2001 title-winning side - the last time the Eagles
won the S.League - has been appointed to his first head coach
role.
No 11-month contracts
On top of that, “quite a number” of the club’s players have
been tied down to two-year contracts, with the rest on one-year
deals, with the option to extend a further year. This is in
contrast with the usual practice of offering 11-month contracts in
the S.League.
Teng explained that the management team members are from the
corporate world and were surprised to find out that it was the norm
to offer 11-month contracts in the league when they came on
board.
“We did our best to find sponsors and to build a business
around this football club. Consequently, we should be able to
afford them for two years, because this is important for stability
and continuity.”
Teng said that “anything above fourth position” in the
nine-team league will be a “good” achievement for the Eagles this
season. The management has set a two to three-year timeframe for
the club to start winning silverware again.
Ultimately, the aim is to make Geylang a sustainable club in
his first year and use that as a platform towards attaining future
glory.
“(We need to) financially strengthen, get stronger, and then
we can start running (better) next year,” Teng said.
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