Ditch S-League, look elsewhere.

"We need to rethink our participation in the S-League next season.

"I will suggest to the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) that we carefully consider this and instead go to either Slovakia or Brazil."

Those were the words of Harimau Muda coach Ong Kim Swee (pic) at seen in Singapore's TODAY.

I remember writing about the pros and cons of our youngsters participating in the S-League on June 29, 2011 as seen here. Sadly, my sole reason of starting this blog - for it to be an archive of all my stories - has taken a backseat for the urls linking to my old articles in The Malay Mail are "missing".

But I do remember saying our team will be "exposed", adding the Singaporeans will learn more from us than we would from them.

And slight over a year later, it has turned into a reality.

No disrespect to the teams playing in the S-League but our Harimau Muda lads need a bigger platform and a different environment to push themselves further. I'm sure the Singaporean players would appreciate such a fact if they were in our 'boots'.

This brings back the question if Kim Swee's opinion was given any thought prior the FA of Malaysia and the FA of Singapore agreeing to the 'swap deal'. Then again, was Kim Swee even given an opportunity to voice his opinion prior the deal was sealed? Or was it a situation where Kim Swee was told about it and had no choice but to agree to it?

Hopefully, the stakeholders will listen to Kim Swee this time around. There are many other ways we can establish and continue our good football ties with Singapore but certainly not at the expense of the national team.

Then again, I'm just another journalist. I'm sure the coaches and officials know best.

HD says: One thing for sure, bak kut teh and char kuey teow way better in Malaysia than in Singapore. Period.