‘Ideal candidate’: FAS names ex-Lion City Sailors CEO Chew Chun-Liang as new general secretary

SINGAPORE: Former CEO of Singapore Premier League (SPL) club Lion City Sailors, Chew Chun-Liang, has been appointed as the new general secretary of the Football Association of Singapore’s (FAS), after a two-month search to fill the top post.
Chew is currently serving notice as deputy chief of care systems integration at the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) and will start his role in November, FAS said in a statement on its website on Friday (Sep 13).
His predecessor, Yazeen Buhari, announced his resignation in July after six years at the helm and will step down on Sep 30. 
The Lions have international friendlies against Myanmar and Chinese Taipei scheduled in November, while the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Championship takes place a month later.
Their packed schedule means Chew will have to get up to speed quickly, but given his experience, FAS expects him to “make a running start” in guiding Singapore’s football governing body.
FAS president Bernard Tan said: “I am pleased to welcome Chun-Liang as the new general secretary.
“His proven leadership across diverse fields, including his distinguished service with the AIC and his time at Lion City Sailors positions him as the ideal candidate to lead FAS at this critical juncture.”
Tan added: “Chun-Liang understands the challenges we have before us. Given his previous work in football, he knows the stakeholders and is familiar with the issues. We expect him to make a running start in guiding the FAS under his watch.”
At the top of Chew’s agenda will be working hand-in-hand with Lions head coach Tsutomu Ogura to improve the fortunes of the national team.
Singapore has been struggling on the international arena in recent years, having failed to make it past the group stage of the Southeast Asia Games since 2013.
At the last edition in 2023, they failed to win a single match, and were hammered 7-0 by fierce rivals Malaysia in their final group outing. It was Singapore’s heaviest defeat at the Games since the competition became an age-group affair in 2001.
Singapore also failed to win any of its four 2026 World Cup qualifiers – drawing 2-2 against China and losing twice against South Korea and once against Thailand as they finished bottom of their group.
But FAS noted several milestones during Chew’s tenure with the Sailors from 2020 to 2022 which may augur well for the Lions.
The SPL outfit won their first league title in 2021 and opened Singapore’s first integrated training football facility at Mattar Road a year later, with the state-of-the-art centre costing S$10 million (US$7.7 million).
Chew said his time at the Sailors had given him a “deeper understanding” of the local football fraternity, and that it was clear to him that football holds a “special place in the hearts of Singaporeans”.
Thanking Tan and FAS’ executive committee for entrusting him with the leadership reins, Chew added: “I’m confident that I will be able to contribute to steering the organisation in the direction that Bernard, the FAS council and Singaporeans want football to head towards.”
“I will be building atop a foundation that Yazeen helped lay, and I hope to continue the good work in a manner that will see Singapore football grow even more in the years ahead.”