RIP Krishnan Suppaiah: Heart, head and hand for football

The eight-letter word ‘football’ is synonymous with Krishnan Suppaiah, who literally lived, breathed and relished the ball game with “bola talk” always on his lips.

He was a rare breed who was football-fanatical and devoted his life to finding the most effective and practical ways to transform the lives of footballers during the amateurish era of the 1970s.

The 66-year-old  businessman always knew the odds were against him for speaking up to the highest management to change the face-lift of Singapore football in the 1970s, urging for a more professional approach to give it a long overdue refreshing outlook.

Suppaiah, a staunch Hindu, died Thursday morning, just after the Hindu Festival of Lights ‘Deepavali’, a victim of a rarest form of liver cancer.

“He was totally committed to football from grassroots to the Football Association of Singapore (FAS),” recalls Steven Tan, the former FAS general-secretary. “Suppaiah was always selfless, always thinking of new ways to promote football.”

The tributes that followed his death ranked him to a Singapore-version of the legendary Liverpool hero Bill Shankly who was always more than a great football manager. Shankly was football’s Muhammad Ali, a charismatic maverick whose utterances had an unexpected, undeniable poetry.

Suppaiah was likewise a Shankly-clone as he laid the foundations of Jurong Town FC in 1975 and started Singapore’s first Industrial League in the 1970s. He was one of the founders of Jurong Football Club, which took part in the S-League in the mid-1990s, when professional football started in 1996.

EXTRAORDINARY PASSION

“His passion was extraordinaire and he genuinely cared for players and V. Sundramoorthy (current national head coach) can testify to this,” says Mr Tan. “Suppaiah worked hard to secure sponsorship for his Cinderellla-like club even from the National Football League (NFL) days.”

Mr Tan, now a sporting consultant, recalls Suppaiah’s departure for Surabaya, Indonesia, two decades ago, where he single-handedly built a million-dollar business dealing with spices and cashew nuts and virgin coconut oil.

He adds: “It just shows his determination and resourcefulness. He was tired of fighting for the good of football and decided that he had to look after his business and family first. Singapore football dearly lost him to Surabaya.”

The Surabaya folks adored him as “Bapak Singapura” (Singapore Father) as he knew, like in football, to get the best of his staff with his home-grown formula of “sincerity in work and motivation in rewards”.

“His staff in Indonesia will tell you how he cared for every worker and their families and made them happy,” says Mr Tan. “When in hospital, his Indonesian staff came in batches to visit him. To the simple folks in his factory, he was ‘Bapak Singapura’, the kind saviour who lived a simple life and always had the interest of his staff at heart.”

MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH

FAS Director of Competitions Kok Wai Leong recalls how Suppaiah “ran Jurong FC as a matter of life and death” and transformed the little-known West-coast club through “sheer force of personality”.

“He put his character into the club in every facet from the bottom to the top. He instilled pride, discipline, loyalty and a relentless work ethic. He bought astutely and galvanised those new players, while ruthlessly getting rid of those who had kept the club in mediocrity,” says Mr Kok.

“He made everyone involved believe that Jurong FC, with minimal funding, can match the best teams. He was always so passionate and committed, he ran the club like his life depended on it. Never one to flinch with his words, he walked the talk with Jurong FC even though the club struggled financially in those formative years of the S-League. I have great respect for the man for his efforts in contributing to Singapore football.”

Former Straits Times Sports Editor Godfrey Robert moaned Suppaiah’s death as a “very big loss for Singapore football…for he breathed and lived for the game for almost three decades”.

He says: “As ST sports editor I have had several discussions with Suppaiah and I could see the strong passion emanating from a football man at heart. Even when he was running Jurong Town as NFL club, he showed his professionalism by thinking big and keeping the media informed of his plans.

“I would carry his team’s results as fillers in The Straits Times and he would be ever so grateful for those were the days when the print media carried so much weight. He never shirked responsibility and never feared speaking the hard truth, knowing full well that he cared for the sport.  Singapore football definitely owes Suppaiah a very great tribute.”

WANTING TO WIN

Datuk Peter Velappan, the longest-serving AFC (Asian Football Confederation) General Secretary, hails Suppaiah as an “extraordinary grassroots football hero, whose heart, head and hand was for the players”.

“Please convey my heartfelt condolences to his family. He was a very rare breed of Asean football servants who walked the talk and spoke passionately in umpteen ways to raise football from amateur to professional levels. May his soul rest in peace,” adds Datuk Velappan in a SMS from Kuala Lumpur.

Former award-winning 1981 SNOC ‘Coach of the Year’ Jita Singh, who won the Malaysia Cup in 1980, hailed Suppaiah as “one of the most passionate football men I’ve ever met”. He says: “He looked at people and wanted to see himself. In terms of self-motivation, wanting to win, wanting to play football.

“If you had those sort of character traits you were good enough for him. He never ever compromised on football principles, somewhat like Bill Shankly. I only wished he got the right football results he truly deserved.”

Suppaiah, rather astonishingly, led Jurong FC to one Singapore Cup final in the 1980s and his eldest son, 42-year-old Krishnan says that was the “highlight of my dad’s career as no one ever gave Jurong FC a chance”.

Tears welling in his eyes, he recalls how his late dad was diagnosed with liver-cancer earlier this year. One of the rarest, Klatskin tumor is a type of cancerous growth that develops at the junction between right and left biliary duct from where main bile duct is formed.

“He knew he was in a severe health crisis as almost all Klatskin tumors are inoperable,” says Krishnan, who ran the family’s food-ingredient business in Surabaya the past four years. “My father declined to go for intensive radio-therapy and showed he was a fighter to the end by accepting his fate, with dignity. He will always be my ultimate hero – to the family and football.”

‘WIZARD FOR MOTIVATION’

Lions head coach V. Sundramoorthy, 52, who moved from Woodlands FC in 1996 to become the first-ever player-coach in S-League’s history for Jurong FC, describes Suppaiah as a “wizard for motivation”.

“He long admired Jose Mourinho (current Manchester United manager) and he had the same ultra-passionate trademarks. You know, he just needs one minute with the team, before the match or at half-time, to say the right motivational lines and they will rise to the occasion,” says Sundramoorthy, who was nicknamed ‘The Dazzler’ at the height of his prowess and ‘King Cobra’ when he was the player-coach of Jurong FC.

Former Singapore skipper Razali Saad, who won 53 “A” caps for Singapore from 1984 to 1993, and now a FAS Executive Council member, says: “I was never under his management but I heard a lot of Suppaiah’s commitment and sacrifice for Jurong FC. A lot of positive words from fellow players in the 1980s and 90s.”

Personally, I recall visiting Suppaiah last month with Jita Singh and his wife, Misnah, and he distinctly moaned about the “very sorry state of Singapore football”. He pleaded several times: “Please try and save the No 1 sport which is going down the drain. There must be a passionate commitment from everyone to bring back the best days of football in the 1970s and 80s when the ‘Kallang Roar’ was a fiery national war-cry.”

Perhaps one of his best words to me as a journalist, who has known him for quarter-century, was an iconic Bill Shankly line: “For a player to be good enough to play for me, he must be prepared to run through a brick wall for me then come out fighting on the other side.”

Yes, in a nutshell, Jurong FC was made for Suppaiah and Suppaiah was made for Singapore football. Pity that a football-fanatical who devoted his life to finding the most effective and practical ways to transform the lives of footballers never realised his ultimate dream.

RIP Krishnan Suppaiah: We will always remember your heart, head and hand for football in the way you really lived, breathed and relished the ball game with “bola talk”.

The late Suppaiah’s body is resting at AYS Remembrance Hall at Block 38 Sin Min Drive, #01-543, Singapore 575712 from 1.00pm Friday. The cortege will leave for Mandai Crematorium at 4.00pm, Saturday. – BY SURESH NAIR

• Suresh Nair is a Singapore-based journalist who knew Krishnan Suppaiah for over quarter-century. He believed Suppaiah, like Bill Shankly, felt that football is much more than a matter of life and death.

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