Who should captain Singapore at the ASEAN Football Championship? The best player (isn’t it obvious?)

By Les Tan

Last Saturday, December 13th, we posted a story about how Singapore had three different captains in as many games during the group phase of the ASEAN Football Championship (AFF Suzuki Cup).

A few days later, on Tuesday, December 13th, the local broadsheet, The Straits Times, ran a similar story on the same topic, with different players making supportive remarks about how Indra is the official captain.

However, no mention was made of the fact that Indra had lost his starting place in the squad. A captain should be a consistent automatic starter and coach Raddy Avramovic decided for the first game against Cambodia that Mustafic Fahrudin fit that bill.

It is not hard to see why Fahrudin is the automatic choice given his generally consistent performance in the middle of the park for the team.

However, in the next game against Myanmar, Noh Rahman became captain.

So what changed?

Baihakki Khaizan is quoted by the Straits Times as saying that local-born players should have priority.

He said: “I think local-born players must have priority when the choice of national captain is being considered.”

If parochial nationalism is the reason behind the revolving choice of captain, that is understandable on an emotional level but ultimately self-defeating for the entire team. When a person is chosen on the basis of where he is born, the team ultimately fractures.

This is a football team, not a political party or a government. The football rules permit naturalised citizens playing for their country of choice. Singapore, like the good rules-based society that we are, have exploited the rules to its maximum effect for our own footballing benefit.

The Thais, Indonesians and Malaysians can complain all they like but there is nothing stopping them from doing it too. The mundane and simple truth is that they just can’t find anyone interested in representing them because their countries are not as attractive as a place to live and work.

Singapore on the other hand has been able to attract talent. As a result, we have two African-Singaporeans (Precious Emuejeraye, Agu Casmir), two English-Singaporeans (Daniel Bennett, John Wilkinson), two Serbian-Singaporeans (Aleksandar Duric, Mustafic Fahrudin) and one Chinese-Singaporean (Shi Jiayi) in the starting lineup when they are fit.

The best starting player should be the permanent captain, because the best command the respect of anyone, regardless of race or origin.