Winston Lee's AFC vice-president role unaffected by police probe

Winston Lee's status as a vice-president on the executive committee of continental football body Asian Football Confederation (AFC) remains unchanged, despite the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) general secretary's involvement in a police probe.

AFC general secretary Windsor John confirmed this yesterday in response to The New Paper's queries.

"At the moment, (there is) no (change)," said John.

"What is happening in Singapore is a very domestic affair.

"But the AFC and Fifa are following it closely because it is related to the AFC Congress on May 8."

The FAS' 44 affiliate members will elect the national football body's office bearers at the Black Box Auditorium at the Singapore Sports Hub this Saturday.

The discourse in the lead-up to election day, however, has been dominated by the revelation of a $500,000 donation made by presidential candidate Bill Ng, with the funds coming from the coffers of amateur side Tiong Bahru FC.

Ng is the chairman of the National Football League club .

Ng has claimed he donated the money to the FAS at the request of Lee and did not know what it was used for.

But Lee has denied this and subsequently released documents which showed that Ng knew the donation was meant for regional football body Asean Football Federation.

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As the two parties' squabble dominated headlines, national sports agency Sport Singapore made a police report last Wednesday night, after it received information which raised suspicions of misuse of Tiong Bahru's funds, as well as a purported attempt to delay completion of audits into the accounts of S.League sit-out clubs.

This led to a police probe, with officers from the Commercial Affairs Department carrying out raids on the FAS and the three football clubs with links to Ng - Tiong Bahru, Woodlands Wellington and Hougang United - last Thursday.

Ng and Lee were among those questioned by the authorities.

Yesterday, Ng's opponent at the election, Lim Kia Tong, held a media briefing at the Komoco Motors office at Alexandra Road to address questions surrounding the donation.

Lim, who is a former FAS vice-president, denied knowledge of the donation that was made to the AFF via the FAS.

When asked about Lee's future should he be elected president, Lim said: "An important decision like that needs to be made collectively."

Bernard Tan, also a former FAS vice-president who is running for the same post on Team LKT's slate, added: "We do not discuss staff issues like that. It is highly inappropriate.

"To be fair to the people employed, they have contracts, and they deserve to be treated in a way that's professional."