ActiveSG Football Academy coach handed letter of warning after ‘lapse in duty of care’

SINGAPORE – An ActiveSG Football Academy (AFA) coach was issued a letter of warning after he dismissed his Under-10 players early without ensuring that their parents or guardians had arrived to pick them up.

The incident occurred during a training session on May 8, which was supposed to start after 5pm. But the AFA coach moved his U-10 participants to the nearby HDB block at West Coast Crescent due to inclement weather and lightning risk.

He then ended the session early and dismissed the players even though their parents had not arrived for pick-up.

A parent who declined to be named said that she was very upset by the incident, as most of the children were between nine and 10, noting that this is an age where they “require constant adult supervision”.

On May 9, she received a text message from another parent at about 5.30pm informing her that training had ended abruptly and that the coach told the group that he had quit.

Training was initially slated to end at about 7pm and she had planned to pick him up then. She told The Straits Times that there were other parents who were caught in the same situation.

She added: “I panicked, because I don’t give gadgets to my son, and he had no way of contacting me. I had to tell a fellow parent to inform my son that I will make my way down immediately. Meanwhile, my son went up to the coach and said that his mother is not here yet and this coach apparently told my son to find his way home.”

She said that her son was “very disoriented” by the coach’s response, raising her concern that the HDB block was located close to a traffic junction “which is plied by heavy vehicles”.

“If I am sending my son to you, it means I’m entrusting my reins of safety and support and everything towards to you. So it’s a big, big trust. They breached that trust,” said the parent, who has since withdrawn her son from the AFA.

Responding to queries from ST, a spokesperson from AFA said that it conducted an internal investigation into the incident after receiving feedback, and the coach was suspended from all duties during that period.

It concluded that there was a lapse in duty of care and that the coach failed to fulfil his duty of care towards minors, meet professional conduct standards and comply with the Code of Conduct for coaches.

The spokesperson said: “Following these findings, the coach was issued a written letter of warning. He was required to undergo counselling, and has since been re-deployed in a reduced-capacity role at a different venue for further monitoring and assessment. He has also been informed that any further misconduct will result in stronger disciplinary action.”

While AFA did not name the coach, ST understands that he was in charge of a team who compete in the Singapore Youth League (SYL), an elite youth competition that was launched in 2024 under the Unleash the Roar! national football project.

Launched in 2016, the AFA comes under the purview of Sport Singapore and has 16 training centres. Several AFA teams have paired with Singapore Premier League (SPL) clubs to train promising young talent under each SPL side’s banner and they compete in the SYL.

ST understands that while there was an official complaint lodged by at least one parent about the incident, several others submitted a petition in support of the coach, noting that their experience with him – barring that situation – had been positive.

But the parent who spoke to ST questioned if enough attention was being paid to the emotional safety, duty of care, and basic safeguarding practices in grassroots sport.

She added: “Are people waiting for a bigger incident to happen? Some parents called me and told me to withdraw my complaint and I told them that they would not be having this conversation with me if anything serious happened that day.”

The AFA spokesperson added that it takes the safety and well-being of its young footballers seriously, and the academy has reiterated to coaches their responsibility to uphold the highest standards of conduct and vigilance in their duty of care.

The spokesperson added: “This incident also reinforced the importance of our code of conduct and safeguarding protocols. We will take further steps to strengthen their enforcement, as we remain committed to provide a safe, supportive and professional environment for every participant in our programmes.”