Ex-S League coach jailed for bribery
A former S-League coach has been sentenced to three months' jail and ordered to pay a penalty of S$4,000 for accepting and attempting to take bribes.
These bribes were in the form of cash loans of between S$500 and S$20,000.
According to court documents, Kunju Jamaludeen accepted cash loans totalling S$5,000 from four trainees and attempted to get cash loans totalling more than S$30,000 from another five trainees.
He committed the offences between February and June 2011, when he was appointed by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) to conduct the Asian Football Confederation 'C' Certificate Coaching Course.
The 56-year-old faced nine counts of corruption for assisting trainees in passing the course.
The prosecution proceeded on four of the charges and took the rest into consideration.
Court documents also stated that Kunju would reveal information about the course test results to the trainees before proceeding to ask for a loan.
He would tell them that he needed the money to fly to Mongolia to negotiate a coaching contract, that his grandson was ill, or that he had problems getting a new house.
As a trainer, he was not supposed to reveal the results to the trainees before the official certificates were given out.
In court, Kunju said he was remorseful about what he had done, and apologised for "bringing a bad name" to the FAS.
District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim, in meting out the sentence, said Kunju's actions had put the "quality and integrity" of the certificates at risk.
~News courtesy of Channel Newsasia~
