ACADEMY COACH GIVEN WARNING FOR 'LAPSE'

He releases Under-l0 players early without ensuring their parents have turned up

- Deepanraj Ganesan

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 pickup.

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.