Singapore clubs chip in for quake relief
Reuters - Friday 25 March 2011, 10:25
SINGAPORE, March 25 (Reuters) - Singapore league champions
Etoile FC have invited the Malaysian national team to play a
charity match later this month, donating all gate receipts to
disaster relief efforts in Japan following the devastating March
11 earthquake and tsunami.
"The news on Japan is everywhere, in every newspaper. You
cannot be untouched by what is happening there," Etoile FC
chairman Johan Gouttefangeas told Reuters on Friday.
"I am very concerned about the situation in Japan, even
though we are in a very safe place. My brother is in Japan, he
is safe. We also have a lot of friends in Japan," he added.
"We are in a position to use football to do something good,
and I feel this is what we could do and what we should do."
Japanese side Albirex Nigiita Singapore have also organised
a fundraising gala dinner and match featuring four former
Japanese internationals, including Hidetoshi Nakata, who plied
his trade in Serie A and the English Premier League.
The charity game between Etoile FC and Southeast Asian
champions Malaysia is scheduled for March 26 at the Jalan Besar
Stadium, while Albirex Nigiita Singapore will play an S.League
all-star side on April 2.
More than 10,000 people were killed and 17,500 remain
missing in the disaster, according to latest police figures. But
even those numbers have been eclipsed by the possibility of a
catastrophic meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, just
250-km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.