FAS acknowledges error made by officials in Lion City Sailors-Tampines Rovers SPL match

SINGAPORE: The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) has acknowledged a mistake made by match officials during last weekend’s Singapore Premier League (SPL) fixture between the Lion City Sailors and Tampines Rovers.

Trailing 1-0 in the 68th minute of the match at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Sunday (Mar 13), Tampines looked to have snatched an equaliser through Firdaus Kasman.

The goal was quickly chalked off for offside, however, to the anger of Tampines players and the bemusement of commentators.

It was disallowed as the match officials adjudged that Tampines captain Yasir Hanapi had “interfered by making an obvious action which clearly impacts the ability of an opponent to play the ball”, FAS Referees Department head Nazeer Hussain said in a statement on Tuesday.

While Yasir was in the goalmouth area as the strike from Firdaus flew in from the edge of the box, he was in a position behind Lion City Sailors goalkeeper Hassan Sunny and made no attempt to play the ball as he moved out of its way.

The error proved to be costly as Tampines eventually lost the match to the defending champions 1-0.

“In our review of the match, while the match officials had gotten the majority of the decisions correct, they had, in this case, incorrectly interpreted the law and are rightfully regretful over their respective errors in judgement,” Nazeer said.

“I have personally reached out to Tampines Rovers chairman Desmond Ong to formally acknowledge and apologise for the match officials’ mistake.”

Nazeer said that FAS is already in the process of implementing video assistant referee, or VAR, technology in the SPL.

“As part of the FAS Referees Department's long-term objective to have our match officials make consistent and, more importantly, correct