SINGAPORE -Bill Ng, one of two presidential candidates for next week's Football Association of Singapore (FAS) election, has adopted a more conciliatory tone just days after blasting the FAS and its general secretary Winston Lee.

The chairman of S-League club Hougang United and National Football League club Tiong Bahru FC, issued a statement on Wednesday (April 19) night, saying that "we have reached ground zero for football in Singapore" and that "we need to start afresh from here".

Noting the events of the last week, following his bombshell during the unveiling of his team's manifesto on Thursday, he acknowledged: "Many well-wishers and concerned friends have shared their thoughts - that we have washed dirty linen in public, potentially even sullied my own reputation, and not focused on Singapore football, which has sunk to all-time lows in (the) world ranking".

The local football fraternity has been rocked since Ng claimed that he had made donations totalling $850,000 to the FAS and that he knew little about how the money had been used and urged the media to query Lee.

That led to a war of words with Lee, who on Tuesday night released a paper trail that included a letter, cheques and payment vouchers to defend himself and show that Ng was aware that $500,000 was meant to go to the Asean Football Federation.

Ng ended his letter by saying: "The revelations over the last few days has to be a 'time to clear the air' moment for football in Singapore. A restart that is belatedly needed. The public and football fraternity needs to know the previous environment of administration. It is nothing but an unhealthy environment and needs to be cleared.

"Only when we have awareness of our shortcomings, develop and acceptance of those shortcomings, then can we have the wisdom, acceptance and fortitude to make the change for the betterment of football in Singapore."