Lessons from AYG

WHERE ARE THE FANS? Empty stadiums were a common sight during the Asian Youth Games. TNP PICTURE: JOYCE LIM

For sport's sake, open up organisers (The New Paper, 20 Jun) AYG ORGANISERS initially closed all training sessions to the media, making them closed-door affairs. This made it impossible for media to drum up public interest in the competition, especially with the football preliminaries starting. The New Paper even had to ask foreign team managers themselves for where and when their teams were training, as AYG organisers weren't providing information a day before the competition started. After that story, organisers opened up. Football fixtures fiasco (TNP, 23 Jun) SWITCHING of football matches at the last minute at Temasek Polytechnic (and not because of the H1N1 cases at that time), caused confusion among fans who turned up for the wrong games. There was no alert to the media or the public regarding the switches, as early as the day before. At Jurong Junior College, fans turning up, weren't even told that the Hong Kong-Saudi Arabia game had been cancelled due to the four H1N1 cases within the Hong Kong team. Drinks were unavailable at school venues, as water bottles were confiscated to prevent missile launching. There has to be better drinks availability for fans next year. Getting better (TNP, 25 Jun) AYG ORGANISERS - including public relattions agency Fulford - took criticism positively from start to end, and genuinely tried not to repeat mistakes. They apologised for the fixture mix-up and took steps for greater transparency, like e-mailing and texting advance notices of rescheduling matches to the media for public announcements. Upset Brunei team left in the lurch (The Straits Times, 27 Jun) FOUR members of the Brunei contingent were stranded for more than three hours before they could check into their hotels and had to change clothes in a public toilet. They were also not given AYG accreditation passes. AYG organisers said it was due to a miscommunication. Goal, but who is the scorer? (TNP, 28 Jun) SINGAPORE'S Under-14 football team - in their first game against Iran - had no names printed on the back of their jerseys, leaving interested local fans clueless as to the future stars they were supposed to look out for. An FAS spokesman said this was not an oversight, but the coach added that it would have been nice to have names on the jerseys, and some players agreed with The New Paper as well. For the next game against Thailand two days later, the Cubs sported jerseys with their names newly printed. Fans later came to mark Jeffrey Adam Lightfoot and Hanafi Akbar as possible stars of Singapore soccer in the next 10 years. Same old story (TNP, 30 Jun) A REPORTER from The New Paper was prevented from speaking to the South Korean players during their training session at Temasek Polytechnic. The team's local liaison officer said that the instructions he had been given, since the start of the tournament, were to direct all media queries to the media centre. The New Paper had to leave the training ground without much of a match preview. This, after the previous policy of barring media from attending training sessions had been scrapped by organisers. Yet another example of miscommunication at the ground level. Where have all the fans gone? (TNP, 30 Jun) FOR THE Singapore-Thailand match at Jalan Besar stadium which can hold up to 6,000 people, there were fewer than 500 going by The New Paper's count. Several schools whose students are participating in AYG, hadn't made arrangements for their students to go down to the game venues to watch. Students had to go down to the game venues on their own accord. Singapore Sports School then turned out in droves over the next few days at various events to show support. Sell out crowd? (TNP, 2 Jul) AYG ORGANISERS claimed that a sell-out crowd of more than 150 spectators watched the first day of the diving finals. But when The New Paper visited the venue later that day, we found only 50 spectators without AYG passes. There was a possibility that those with tickets had failed to turn up. At other events, it took only till the end, over the weekend, when the events saw better crowd turnout. Schools speak out (ST, 3 Jul) SIX OF 10 schools spoken to had not made any special arrangements for their students to catch the action at the various venues. They cited clashes with the schools' curriculum after the return from school holidays, examinations and fears over the Influenza A (H1N1) virus. As such, the majority of youth were missed from the Games. Confusion over attire (ST, 3 Jul) FEMALE athletes from Bahrain and Kuwait, participating in the 3-on-3 basketball event, were told that they were not allowed to take part while wearing a hijab (headscarf). In total, four athletes - three from Bahrain and one from Kuwait - donning the hijab were not allowed to take the court as they were deemed to be not properly attired. Bahrain's chef-de-misson managed to convince OCA officials to allow them to wear the hijab and play. But in yet another case of miscommunication at the ground level - possibly the AYG's biggest bugbear - this change in rules was not communicated to Kuwait. Sand injuring team (TNP, 6 Jul) BAD SAND at the beach volleyball tournaments is unforgiveable if it injures participants. Singapore coach Teo Chiek Shan had to spend three hours at Singapore General Hospital's A&E Department on the night before the Singapore boys' big match against Oman last Friday. He got a nasty cut from a wooden splinter at Court Four. Better sand might have helped Singapore's cause, just as more funding and support would.