“I never thought one day I would be FAS president”: Up Close with Lim Kia Tong

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You know all about Lim Kia Tong the public figure… What about him the person? Junpiter Futbol (JPF) sat down for an exclusive interview with the head honcho of Singapore football to delve deeper into his psyche… 

As JPF reaches his office (Hin Tat Augustine & Partners) at the scheduled meeting time of 7pm, Lim Kia Tong is already seated at the reception area waiting for us.

Being someone who wear many hats – a criminal lawyer, president of the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) as well as various involvements in football at the world, confederation and regional level – Lim places a strong emphasis on readiness and getting the little details right. 

He prepares for every setting in which he is required to speak – be it in court, as a guest-of-honour at a local football event or representing Singapore at the FIFA, AFC or AFF Congress. And to JPF’s surprise, he mentioned that he even tried to prepare for this interview and read up for extra information in order to value-add. 

It turned out to be an enriching session that took over two hours in which he let loose unusually on various topics – a far cry from his guarded public persona. Over the course, he tries to be as transparent and open as possible about his work, life, family and values. 

Transparency is an ethic which he has adopted over the five years since he officially took over as the provisional president and thereafter the elected president of the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) on 28th April 2017. Previous gaps in governance have been plugged and the national governing body now focuses on the spirit of inclusiveness to include all stakeholders, whenever permissible. 

“I know for sure, transparency cannot merely be confined to ourselves and we must be seen to be transparent by our football fraternity,” he told JPF. “Whatever we’re doing is towards trying to share as much as possible with them. 

“For example if the FAS need to make a decision, all the council members should participate and be involved in the discussion. We also have our regular meetings with the professional SPL (Singapore Premier League) and occasional meetings with the amateur clubs to get a sense of their issues and to help them grow.”

The explicitness is not limited just to the policies – it is also extended to the facilities at the heart of Singapore football. Lim had secured massive funding from FIFA for a major revamp of the FAS headquarters at Jalan Besar Stadium with the renovation works officially completed in February this year. With that, he hopes that it will be an ‘effective nerve centre for football where the fraternity can come together’. 

“FAS used to be dead after 5pm in the past, but now it is alive by lights at night and the FAS logo can be seen from far!” he joked before elaborating further. “We adopted certain concepts in the renovation that will make us visible to not just the football fraternity but also the public. 

“The first focal point is the reception and the direct FAS phone line. We’re training our full-time receptionists to attend to whoever calls in to us and provide a service to them. Anyone is welcome here and there won’t be a situation where we just simply turn someone away.”

“Next is that we want to create a place where the community can come and visit. It’s like an education centre where there are books, magazines, documents from FAS, AFC or FIFA and its Congress and a bulletins for them to come anytime during our office hours to take a look, do some research and learn something about football. We’re trying to get someone to do the history of football in Singapore i.e. who were the previous presidents and what were their significant achievements, what competitions did the nation participate in etc.”

Standing for a second term as FAS president

Lim was re-elected as FAS president in April 2021 for another four years till 2025. During the 2017 campaign which the national football body amended their constitution – a mandatory process to align with FIFA’s rulings – to choose their office bearers through an election process for the first time, his Team LKT staved off competition from Bill Ng’s Team Game Changers to take office. 

Previously, the council members and the president were always appointed by the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (now called the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth). 

This time round, it was virtually a no-contest with Team LKT winning all 15 seats (nine under the Slate Basis and six under the Individual Basis) which gave him mixed feelings. 

“If there was another team contesting, at least we can fight it out and the voters can discern who has the better plan,” he pointed out. “I do not know what’s the reason, but I take it as a signal that the football fraternity wants me to stay,” he said jokingly. “Whatever it is, I’m satisfied that we’re elected again and are trusted by the people to bring the game to the next level.”

An analytical person who often has a broader view of things, Lim first proposed the idea of having a slate back during that first election as he was keen to avoid any unsavoury infighting issues that may cause disharmony within the elected group of people and harm on a larger scale. 

“Say if the president, vice-president and members are all voted in individually – if these people that go in are unable to work with the president – they will surely outvote him, which makes the leadership totally ineffective,” he explained. 

“That’s why we focus on going in as a team because you don’t expect your own members to vote against you in that manner. It was a thought-thru process to ensure everything is stable and there will be no upheaval. Everyone will be on the same page to work together without a major conflict in views.”

Injecting new faces into the FAS council 

While stability is important to govern the sport, Lim recognises the importance of bringing in new people to freshen up the scene and bring in new ideas. Coupled with the fact that a number of members of his original team in 2017 had requested to step down due to various commitments, he saw the need to ‘inject some new element’. 

More than one-third of his team now are new faces, with the most notable two being renowned former national players Lionel Lewis and Goh Tat Chuan as new council members. By bringing in these couple of famous names in the local scene, Lim hopes to inspire the younger generation while adding that they are not simply selected purely on their fame. 

Another key reason is that Lim believes in having balanced composition of Malays, Indians, Chinese as well as Eurasians to represent the multi-racial society of Singapore.

“My job as the leader of this team is to bring in council members who has the experience and wisdom to move the football vehicle in a fast manner,” he said. “Say if you pluck someone who has never played football, I’ll never elicit from him the essence and knowledge on how to administer the game. It’s not just about managing at the local level; we also need some know-how at the regional and world level to bring football forward. 

“And also in order to excite people, excite the young boys and girls, they need to look at certain football personalities – not a Lim Kia Tong, a lawyer – so what? Lionel and Tat Chuan have gone through the different elements and rigours to become footballers at the national level. 

“There’re so many ex-internationals around, but I chose these two because they have excelled in their jobs and hold good positions after retiring from the game. Both of them are degree holders. They can send a message to people that you can play the game without compromising your educational pursuits. Maybe their outlook of managing football is not there yet, but they’re at a good age to come on board and learn more.”

Road to FAS presidency 

A passionate football guy whose passion for the game grew in the late 60s and early 70s watching the likes of Dollah Kassim, Quah Kim Song and S Rajagopal, Lim first got involved with Singapore football in 1992 when he joined the FAS’s Disciplinary Committee (DC). He then became a council member in April 1999, before being promoted to vice-president in 2007. 

He was subsequently appointed the association’s provisional president for five months from November 2016 to March 2017 before officially taking the reins thereafter. 

While he loved the game, it was not a personal aim to head the association – especially given that all his predecessors were appointed by the ministry – and he never ever thought this massive responsibility will be mounted on his shoulders. 

Delving into his past experience in the Volunteer Special Constabulary (VSC) – where trained volunteers are vested with equal powers of a police officer to enforce law and order in the country – for 25 years, he believed he has come this far because of his hard work. 

“It’s not in my character to aim to be somebody in whichever areas I contribute in,” he reiterated. “I was already a captain during the reservist with the army before being asked to join the VSC. But when I went through the basic training (to become a volunteer police officer), I still behaved like a recruit. Whenever the instructor shouted at me, I played my part and replied ‘yes sir’ and ‘yes ma’am’. Later on along the way, I was promoted and my last held rank was Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Police.”

“In the same mould when I joined FAS as a member of the DC to decide on cases, I never thought one day I would be required to fill the shoes of president. Looking at the previous presidents like Mah Bow Tan, Ibrahim Othman, Prof Ho Peng Kee and Zainudin Nordin etc, I never thought me – a man from the non-political side – will ever be appointed.”

Being involved in football at world and regional level 

Lim’s decision to run for presidency in 2017 was actually a bold move as it had implications on his involvement in football at the world level. 

He was at the material time of the election actually the deputy chairman of FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee – in fact the first Singaporean to assume a leadership role on the international governing body’s judicial committee when he was elected to that position in May 2013 – but had to step down from that role and be demoted to purely a member in it due to their regulations that stipulate that a president of a national football body cannot be holding a key appointment in the independent committee.

A firm believer in looking beyond your own shores and not be myopic in your vision, Lim had long ventured out to be involved in football at the regional and world level. In addition to his FIFA role, he is also the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) Disciplinary & Ethic Committee’s chairman since 2011. 

Over the last two decades, it has been tough work for Lim to get to the top and gain the trust of the international leaders. He recounted to JPF his journey at the AFC which started in 2003 by being a member of AFC Legal Committee. In 2007, he was re-designated to their DC as a member before being recommended to FIFA to sit on their 20-man DC in 2010 (1 chairman, 1 deputy chairman and 18 members) due to his exemplary performance.

Then in 2013, he was promoted from member to deputy chairman of the FIFA DC – a prestigious yet more demanding role where he had to deal with possible disciplinary cases that might  concern some of the 211 member countries and served in that position for four years.

Representing Singapore on the big scale is something which he clearly relishes as he remains involved in both AFC and FIFA till today. Now a well-respected figure in international football circles, the good work of Lim is a key reason why Singapore is widely viewed as a country who is competent in the management of the game. 

“I didn’t want to be confined to local football all my life – I knew I have to go out there and get the chance to show our colours in FIFA,” he proclaimed. “If I don’t do so, FAS will be struggling at the local level and we don’t want to be a mere minnow in football. 

“Some people wonder how come a person from a small country like Singapore can be sitting in a FIFA’s Committee. Some lawyers even half-jokingly tell me to recommend them to FIFA, but it’s not possible to get in just like that. It’s not an overnight thing to capture the trust and respect of the world’s football governing body. 

“I simply went in without any personal or ulterior motive – I just want to do a professional job, no hanky-panky and carry it out to the best of my capabilities because I know it’s good for Singapore’s image. Whenever I go for a meeting at the AFC or FIFA, there will be a sign indicating I’m “Lim Kia Tong (Singapore)” – so I’m carrying our flag everywhere, like it or not.”

Lim is keen to state that he got involved in all these not because of money or fame. His passion revolves around doing judicial and legal works at FIFA, AFC and AFF. 

“If money was in my mind, then the FIFA DC is never a place – we are given a USD$150 stipend for each day we go on duty and $100 of it will be deducted if the meals were provided for us,” he revealed. “Say if I get into the executive committee instead of doing all these judicial work, I would get higher honorarium annually.”

His involvement in high-profile football cases

Over his time in international football, Lim found himself involved in high-profile football cases. He was asked about his decision to impose a provisional suspension against the then President of the AFC, Mohamed Hammam. He was very reluctant to speak about the subject matter. However upon the strong prompting of JPF, he eased a little.

As the then AFC DC’s chairman, he was confronted with the extremely difficult task of having to mete out a provisional suspension against the former AFC president in 2011 despite the latter being one of the key men who appointed him to his position. It was a decision that was made after having very careful consideration of all the available evidence  – which shows his level of justice and righteousness. Lim was only responsible for this provisional sanction; the ultimate decision was made by the FIFA’s Ethic Committee. However, Lim holds a good level of respect for Mohamed Hammam’s non interference or non attempt to influence his making of the decision of the provisional suspension.

But it was the Luis Suárez case that truly pushed his name into the international spotlight – he was part of the panel which found the famed Uruguayan striker guilty of biting Italy’s Giorgio Chellini at the 2014 World Cup. Suárez was eventually suspended for nine matches and banned for four months. 

Looking back, he joked that such a big case happened just a year after stepping up to deputy chairman of FIFA’s DC. He recalled the committee having to take extra consideration to come a ‘well-founded decision’ as it involved a superstar of the game which his country pinned all their hopes on.

With the massive number of cameras at the global event, it was not difficult to note the evidence against Suárez. The trickier part was dishing out the appropriate punishment. 

While Lim is unable to share the exact details of what was discussed due to the oath of secrecy under the FIFA Disiplinary Code, he offered us a glimpse of how they handled the case and came to a conclusion – as he paid tribute to the then DC’s chairman Claudio Sulser, a lawyer from Switzerland. 

“When it came to the final verdict, our chairman suddenly told us we would not discuss this at the end of the first day’s hearing. Instead he handed a piece of paper to each of the Committee’s members saying he would adjourn the matter to tomorrow,” he shared.  “He instructed each of us to write down our views and submit to him at the resumption of the hearing the following day. 

“That was a good idea because if he had opened the floor for discussion some of us might be affected or influenced by the views of another or others during an open discussion and I salute him for that.” 

As a deputy chairman or later as a member of FIFA’s DC, on duty he got the opportunity to attend football’s big events like the FIFA World Cup and he is keen to debunk some myths and mistruths in regards to being at the heart of these showpieces. 

“Some people tell me things like ‘wah so good, you have a chance to meet the star players’, ‘wah, you can see David Beckham and talk to him’. Even some of my staff gave me something to get signature from him. I said I’ll try to get people to help, but I myself can’t and it will never happen,” he explained. 

“Because we’re the judicial body, the more we have to try to keep away from them to prevent any wrong perception that we are close to them. We may have to make certain decisions for or against them, so we cannot allow our minds to be prejudiced. Moreover, we are housed in a different hotel as the players and do not have the accreditation to go into their dressing room to speak to them.” 

Building up solid networks and Tatsuma Yoshida’s appointment as national coach 

In the broader view of things, his involvement in world football benefits Singapore in many ways. Being able to observe closely how FIFA or AFC coordinate the event in terms of areas like operations, regulations and officiating, he tries to translate the knowledge into the local context and try to improve the way FAS do things. 

It has also helped him built up solid networks and contacts over the years. His position gives him the opportunity to meet and interact with officials from another country.

Apart from the possibility to set up overseas trials and moves for the local players, it has aided FAS to bring in a world-class team in Argentina to play against Singapore for a gala friendly to mark the association’s 125-year anniversary. 

Most significantly, it has culminated in Tatsuma Yoshida’s appointment as Singapore national team coach in May 2019. The former J.League tactician was a surprising choice, but it has turned out to be one of the best and most satisfying decisions that Lim has made in his tenure. 

As the story goes – the appointment came via Lim’s connection with Japan Football Association’s (JFA) president Kozo Tashima, whom he had known for many years in AFC. 

The FAS were looking for a permanent head coach after the 2018 AFF Suzuki Cup and were realistic enough not to ‘pay millions for big names who cannot guarantee success’. As such, they decided to go for a Japanese coach to ‘change the whole culture’ revolving around Singapore football. Thus during the 2019 Asian Cup in Abu Dhabi, he took the opportunity to meet up with Tashima to broach the subject and seek his assistance and the rest was history. 

Lim and his team faced some flak for Yoshida’s appointment with questions targeted at his track record during his official unveiling as the new Lions tamer. Indeed, the latter’s CV was not the most impressive and moreover he has never managed at the international level before. 

Nonetheless, Lim kept faith with his choice and it has since paid dividends. In a short space of time, Yoshida has managed to get the Lions to play a more attractive style of football with the results to back him up – most notably claiming the scalp of higher-ranked teams in Palestine and Yemen. 

“On paper, his credentials may make it quite tough and difficult to take him as a national coach,” he admitted before going further. “But if someone who doesn’t have the credentials yet is prepared to step forward onto our soils into a demanding role, that means he strongly believes he can do it and I knew he can excel in this role. 

“Also I really trusted Mr Kozo’s recommendation. When the Japanese recommend someone, it’s not for the sake of doing so for personal relationships – it’s because he can really do a job.”

A firm believer that people should not be judged based on credentials and qualifications alone, Lim knows that a successful big-name coach may not be suitable for Singapore context as he quoted a recent example of scouring through ‘more than 160 applicants’ for the Singapore women’s national coach role. 

“We went through the CVs and a few of them had a lot of credentials. Then we go deeper – some of them claimed they were successful at a national level as an assistant coach. So we ask ourselves – is he successful because he’s riding on the success of the head coach or is he really the man doing all the hard work?” he questioned. 

The magic P word

Sitting down with the head honcho of local football, of course we had to address issues in regards to the bread and butter of the game here – which is none other than the Singapore Premier League (SPL). The hot topic right now is privatisation, with Lion City Sailors (LCS) – bankrolled by billionaire Forrest Li – leading the charge by splashing the cash on quality signings and investing 10 million to build a training centre by April 2022. 

A long advocate of privatisation for SPL clubs, Lim wants the fraternity to move away from the modus operandi which has revolved around the game since the S.League (SPL’s former identity) first started in 1996 –  ‘over a quarter of a century ago’ as he is keen to emphasise. 

In fact, he firmly believes it is the sustainable model to keep football thriving in Singapore. Despite facing various objections from some quarters and being told not to ‘think too much’, he went ahead to push the idea. 

He is extremely thankful that Forrest Li,  a former FAS council member shared the concept of privatisation and came onboard. Lim lauded the latter’s courage and genuine passion to part with the cash and dive into the deep water. 

“We’re very fortunate to have Forrest because he’s someone who embraces this concept and genuinely wanted to do something good for Singapore football,” he said. “Looking at our scene where each club doesn’t even own a stadium or land and have to fight so hard to get pitches to train on, would you as a sound businessman pump in millions of dollars in the hope of making a profit? So I salute him for his courage and noble vision to help grow the game here. 

“Many people also warned me there will not be many Forrest Lis. But if you don’t even start the concept somewhere and still continue in the way we’re running the league, the standard of Singapore football will remain the way it is – where each club is dependent on the subsidy given by the government. It’s usually a situation where you give me $800k and I try my best to get some money from either jackpot machines or a sponsor or I try to put in some money, if at all. 

“When you don’t have the financial resources, you’ll always be limited by the amount of top-quality players or technical staff that you want – you can’t pay high-skilled people to come here and grow the game for you.”

A keen student of the game, Lim is aware of what was happening in European football where clubs are trying to break away into a European Super League and fans are protesting because of perceived ill-intention from their wealthy owners. He believes similar issues will never happen in Singapore even if all SPL clubs are privatised and there would not be a need for something like an owner’s test in the future. 

“The uppermost in the mind for these clubs is money. As I established earlier, significant money can’t be made here so the fear of an owner coming in to have a free reign to gain personal profits – it can’t be reality here,” he insisted. 

A slack lifestyle is not for him

Speaking till this juncture, we realised his hectic work commitments and is keen to understand more about his daily life. 

A typical day for Lim starts at about 7am as he wakes up at home to prepare for the day ahead. He is usually in office by about 9-9.30am – he reaches earlier to prepare if there are court cases scheduled for the day ahead – and may leave as late as 1-2am on a busy day. 

More often than not, his wife is already fast asleep after he washes up and gets to bed around 2-3am before the cycle repeats – he typically survives on four to five hours of sleep per day. 

The demands on him are huge – for court cases involving criminal litigation, he spends a lot of time to research and conduct interviews before the actual hearing. 

Also typically (before the COVID-19 pandemic), he had to fly out on a regular basis to the AFC and FIFA headquarters in Malaysia and Switzerland respectively to handle many disciplinary cases; sometimes about 30 to 50 cases – in addition there is also the deployment for judicial work at the major tournaments for both bodies. 

Given that he is juggling his legal practice (a litigation lawyer of more than 40 years) with his various football commitments, there is little time left to spend with his family.

Nonetheless their relationship remains ‘strongly-cemented’ with both his children being a qualified lawyer or a lawyer to be. His son just completed his lawyer training while his daughter is now working at a bank as an In House legal counsel – and he cannot thank his wife enough for raising them up to be fine adults. 

“I’m very thankful that I’ve a very understanding wife, although she’s now starting to complain because she realised her patience has been stretched!” he chuckled. “And understandably so, because she doesn’t see me very often and we don’t have much interaction between each other. 

“Of course it will only do justice to her if more time is spent with her and our two kids – that is something which I’m trying to work on.”

Of course as a public figure comes the price of fame – on occasions he could not go unrecognised whenever he was out for a rare family dinner. Often heads will turn and people would point to him, while occasionally some people would come up to him to have a short chat about Singapore football. Being quite a private person outside his working capacity, he is not entirely comfortable in regards to that but has long learned to live with that attention. 

Still going strong

Now 68 years old, Lim still has the passion to run the game. He feels that he is still in the pink of health for this admittedly stressful job to oversee all aspects of Singapore football and is thick-skinned enough to be the face of the game here – he does not own a Facebook account, which perhaps helps as well. 

Expressing his satisfaction in seeing how the FAS have gone away from focusing resources at the elite level only to spreading them out across the pyramid, he wants to continue in that manner as he seeks to make the “Unleash the Roar” national project a success. 

Most importantly, he hopes to see his dream of seeing all SPL clubs, as well as the league itself, getting privatised becoming a reality as he seeks to restore the glory days of Singapore football. 

“I can’t say for now (if I’m going to stand for another term), but this privatization idea is an extremely good platform to move the game,” he said. “Hopefully with the success of LCS, more companies will be more prepared to come forward to privatise our clubs. With big money pumped in, the commercial aspect of the league can grow – ultimately the whole idea to create an entire blossoming entity.

“We also have to put effort into growing the amateur clubs because they play a big part in the vibrancy and the effectiveness of the ecosystem. I want to grow the game to the extent that the interest and support is at the national level; I want us to be able to galvanise the whole nation to be vested in the sport. 

“Just look at the old days when we won the Malaysia Cup, the blocks of flats within your vicinity all erupted into celebration. Or look at Vietnam for example – whenever their team win the Suzuki Cup or SEA Games, their people will flog onto the streets carrying their flags and horning their vehicles. This is the type of atmosphere that we want to see and it’s my job to see that turn into fruition.” 

*JPF sincerely thank Mr Lim Kia Tong for taking time off his busy schedule to grant us this exclusive interview.

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