While the whole of Singapore is fixated with the fact that Tiong Bahru FC (TBFC) made a $500,000 donation to the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) which was then channeled overseas, it has now also come to our attention that the People’s Action Party Community Foundation (PCF) also benefited from Bill Ng’s generosity.
The TBFC and Hougang United FC (HGUFC) chairman is understood to have made donations of $50,000 each to the People’s Action Party Community Foundation (PCF) Bishan-Toa Payoh branch in 2014.
Mr Zainudin Nordin was a former PAP MP from Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, having served from 2001 to 2015.
The Independent understands that the amounts were donated at some point between January to March 2014, and came at the request of Mr Zainudin Nordin, who was the President of the FAS from 2009 to 2015. Mr Zainudin Nordin has since said that he had no business dealings with Ng.
The chairmen of both clubs is Mr Bill Ng, who is leading the Team Game Changers for the elections for office bearers at the FAS which is happening on 29 April at the Singapore Sports Hub.
The donation of $100,000 to the PCF should not come as a surprise to many.
In football circles, Mr Ng has been known to be a man with a heart.
During the Team Game Changers’ media conference on 13 April at the Fullerton Hotel, he revealed how he had continued to help former international and Woodlands Wellington player S Anthonysamy before he passed away. Anthonysamy had been paralysed from the neck down after an accident during a friendly match at the Woodlands Stadium. Anthonysamy passed away in October 2016.
In July 2016, Ng also donated $50,000 to gymnastics coach Zhu Xiaoping who was stricken with cancer. She passed away in January 2017.
In 2014, The New Paper also reported how Ng’s Hougang United stood by one of its coaches as he fought his way back to health from Stage 4 colon cancer. The coach, Amin Nasir, told TNP how he was grateful to Mr Ng’s “human touch in keeping him on the payroll” even though he was sick. Amin passed away in January 2017.
In 2015, Ng’s Hougang United also set aside a $1 million scholarship programme for budding footballers.