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Lim Kia Tong voted as new FAS president

The new FAS council team elected on Saturday (April 29). Team LKT won a clean sweep in the FAS elections. (Photo: Safhras Khan/Yahoo Singapore)
The new FAS council team elected on Saturday (April 29). Team LKT won a clean sweep in the FAS elections. (Photo: Safhras Khan/Yahoo Singapore)

Update to include the names of the five remaining FAS council members, reactions from a FIFA official and Team LKT

Lawyer Lim Kia Tong was voted in as the new president of the Football Association of Singapore after Team LKT won the first FAS elections on Saturday (April 29).

Of the 44 affiliates, 30 voted for Lim’s slate, while 13 voted for Team Game Changers, led by Hougang United and Tiong Bahru FC chairman Bill Ng. One vote was ruled invalid.

Lim was on the previous council as FAS vice-president.

Bernard Tan will take the role of deputy president, while Edwin Tong, S. Thavaneson, Teo Hock Seng and Razali Saad will assume the four vice-president roles.

Dinesh Nair, Darwin Jalil and Forrest Li will fill up the three council seats.

In addition, Sharda Parvin, the only female candidate among those contesting for the remaining six individual council member seats, has secured an automatic spot. That is because the new FAS constitution requires a female in the council.

The five remaining individual council member seats were filled by Lim Tong Hai, Rizal Rasudin, Yakob Hashim, Michael Foo, and Kelvin Teo over two rounds of voting.

It is a clean sweep for Team LKT, as the council members are all aligned to them.

FIFA’s representative at the FAS elections, Sanjeevan Balasingam, said that the world governing body for football is satisfied with the electoral process.

“Everything has been done in accordance to the statutes and electoral code. We are very happy with the way FAS has conducted with all the process.”

Team LKT’s immediate plans

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the elections, Lim highlighted several factors that were key to his team’s victory.

“The team has been very sincere in wanting to engage and also in coming up with very clear programs that we will implement. Also at the end of the day, a sense of trust in the integrity of the team and the belief that this is the team to take Singapore football forward.”

When asked about the immediate tasks of the new council members, Lim said they will hold a meeting on Tuesday and also meet the FAS staff.

“The main plan going ahead is to address certain issues connected to football and bring up the games to a higher level and of course to bring the community together to heal the game.”

SportSG congratulated the FAS for successfully conducting its elections. Lim Teck Yin, CEO of Singapore’s governing sport body, said the elected FAS leadership should continue to engage their stakeholders to “unite and grow the sport”.

“As a registered charity and Institution of a Public Character (IPC), the FAS must maintain a high standard of regulatory compliance and best practice. Future public funding support will very much depend on this, and the confidence in the FAS’s strategies, plans and actions to develop football in Singapore and our national teams.”

additional reporting by Nigel Chin

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