Woodlands Wellington Boardroom Showdown Coming?

The first slavo is fired!

Things could not get any spicier at Woodlands Stadium at this moment. As Woodlands Wellington slumped to their fifth consecutive loss in the 2-1 home loss to title challengers Home United on Tuesday, one man decided enough was enough.

Hussain Razzak (above), former head of the Woodlands fan club, ex-Sembawang Rangers fan, brother of respected former Balestier Khalsa coach Abdul Karim, in-law of Vengadasalam Rayyan a.k.a Vengaman, went on a one-man march around the stadium at half-time, voicing his displeasure at the running of the club under present chairman Jayadev Unnithan.

He slammed the Rams for being reduced to cronyism, for lacking ambition and passion to bring the club back to its former glory and colourful days, for the virtual non-existant support of the home team and for eventually digging its own demise as a professional football club.

He claimed to have made sacrifices for the club as the head of the die-hards, by creating posters, by purchasing Woodlands jerseys to be "exported" to places as far as England, New Zealand and Australia, sweating blood and tears for the club he loved following the demise of former S.League club Sembawang Rangers after 2003 at Venga's request.

He also boasted media commentators for praising him for making the efforts to raise the atmosphere without asking for a single cent for his efforts and accused the other fan clubs for cheering for the sake of cash and free food.

He derided the present management for their stinginess and driving fans away from supporting their beloved neighbourhood club. He lambasted the first team and coaching staff for lacking the passion, commitment and desire to produce results as they slid to yet another defeat in his presence.

He also accused the staff for lacking commitment, leaving him to do so much as though he was a full-time employee at the club. (He has a full time job at SMRT.)

Beyond the tirading facade of this passionate football fan, Venga seemed to be working very hard behind-the-scenes to grab control of the northern-based club which, formerly known as Wellington FC before the S.League, he steered it to be among the founding eight clubs when Singapore's professional football league kicked off in 1996. 

According to Thursday's report on the Straits Times, Venga departed from the Rams after a dispute with former chairman Francis Gomez and became a peripheral figure at Tampines Rovers under Teo Hock Seng.

Colourful in personality and quotes, he ought to be the ideal man to mount a challenge for control in Woodlands Wellington. He has claimed to have sponsors to provide the club with some financial muscle, although this has yet to be verified.

As Hussain also mentioned, Venga was the man who first unleashed the likes of Itimi Dickson, John Wilkinson and Mazreswan Masturi before they were known to the nation as Singapore internationals.

Unfortunately, Venga is yesterday's man as far as modern football in Singapore is concerned. Now it takes more than just colour and charisma to be respected and obeyed at any professional football set-up in Singapore.

From the chairman to the officials, whatever the financial and physical constraints, Singapore clubs have taken every step possible to be as professional in their work approach off-the-pitch as they could be.

As for the coaches, there is an increasing number of local coaches awaiting employment somewhere with their coaching qualifications, thanks to the S.League for producing them as players first.

They are more aware of modern tactical trends and more methodical and thorough in their training and match preparations, closing the gap in coaching standards between Singapore and the best of Asia (Japan, South Korea and Australia).

Discredited, lamblasted from within and without, Venga is a man without a voice. Even if he makes a dramatic S.League return as new chairman of Woodlands Wellington, can he tolerate delegating stuff to other more competent administrators?

Can he also respect the opinion of present head coach A. Shasi Kumar in terms of team selection and player purchases? Can he persuade the increasingly more pragmatic Singaporean football fans to come down to Woodlands Stadium on his charisma alone?

Will the players and other coaches even bother respecting him, for he has no qualified successes to really speak of?

Most importantly, can the financial backing he claims to have last? With all the local clubs always looking out for financial resources and managing their balance books, even successful businessmen-cum-club chairmen John Yap and Teo are prudent in their financial backing to Gombak United and Tampines respectively. Even Gomez, Tang Weng Fei and Patrick Ang can attest to this.

Unlike the above-mentioned gentlemen, Venga does not have any clout or influence in the highly competitive and successful financial world in Singapore. In any sense, is his bid for control even platable.

Little wonder Jayadev has laughed this off as "such a trivial matter". However, wounded prides can make men like Hussain and Venga earn sympathy points and swing support, however temporary, in their favour.

If the grassroots leader chooses not to open up and state his vision and dreams for the club, if any, he is going to be as easily discredited as Hussain and Venga - for allowing a sinking ship to sink without any explanation or accountability.

Since he is the one who knows what exactly has been going on, he needs to come clean and explain why Hussain was asked to leave Woodlands Wellington as the fan club chairman, why he and the present management refused the offer Venga allegedly made in June and other prickly situations in the wooden spoonists off the pitch.

What about this one-man show? When former Ram and present general manager Jeykanth Jeyapal asked Hussain why the latter did not response to his three separate phone calls following the alleged dismissal, Hussain ducked the question and went on about his past sacrifices to the club.

So...

Ladies and gentlemen, let's sit back and enjoy the WWF (Woodlands Wellington Festival) boardroom smackdown between...

Jayadev Unnithan PBM/ Jeykanth Jeyapal  v Vengadasalam Rayyan/ Hussain Razzak...

Enjoy! :P