The Singapore Straits Times follows up on the polygraph “testing” of soccer players. Excerpt:
WERE any of your players summoned by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau for lie-detector tests?
If so, do you know what the outcome was?
Would you like to know the names of those who flunked the test before you sign up players next season?
These were the three questions Timesport asked officials of the 12 S-League clubs yesterday after it reported that a few players had failed the random polygraph tests which were introduced last year as part of an initiative to prevent match-fixing.
While officials of three clubs admitted they knew some of their players had taken the test, seven said none of their players had been called up for testing. The answer from the remaining two was: ‘Don’t know’.
All the club officials were more than cooperative when Timesport contacted them for their ‘frank and honest’ responses.
Of the three club officials who admitted their charges were tested, the first said two of its players underwent the test, the second said only one was summoned and the third said the club was ‘in the dark’ about the number.
All three, however, did not know what the outcome of the tests were.
Many of the officials referred to yesterday’s The Straits Times report which said that the soccer grapevine had it that 30-odd players had undergone the tests in the last two seasons, that some of them had failed it and that their respective clubs had been ‘unofficially’ made aware of it.
One official said: ‘One of my players admitted he was tested, but we don’t know whether he passed it. So he is treated just like the rest.’
A team manager declared: ‘None of us know anything. Not me, not the chairman, not the coach, not the guys.’
Attempting to sum it up for all, another manager bellowed: ‘This is a private matter. It is confidential information. I don’t know anything.’
And he was supported by yet another ‘don’t know’ official who added: ‘How would I know? As long as a player is not banned, I can sign him.’
Though polygraph tests are inadmissible as evidence in court, officials of all the 12 clubs said they would like to have some form of guidance from the Football Association of Singapore on a matter which was this ‘sensitive’.