Scandal!
Grilled Birds would become embroiled in perhaps the most serious investigation in their history, with the Hattrick league authorities invoking Financial Fair Play bylaws on their six recent youth transfers to Rob the Newbies, which were admittedly well over the going rate. This has seen the club barred from friendlies in the meantime, with the board and staff members getting called in for questioning.
Given that the possible penalties go up to and include deregistration, club supporters were understandably in a tizzy. "I knew it was too good to be true." lifetime fan Abdul Rizal wailed. "It's not like we have the backing of a Chelsea or a Manchester City. Whatever shall we do?"
With all club members strictly prohibited from commenting on the probe, all an extremely-solemn
Tian Yonghang could do was to shake his head at the throng of reporters that had gathered at The Cooking Pot, once the news broke - and it could have been more, had a more or less equal number not rushed to the ground of current S-League leaders newbies are newbies, the other party embroiled in this affair. In any case, all they would get would be a very terse statement from the board, that they were cooperating with the authorities, and that there would be no further speculations from their end.
It was a shame then that
Federico Parada's nomination as an official prospect for the Bolivian National Team, received yesterday, would be completely overshadowed - but under the circumstances, this might be close to the last thing on Tian's, or for that matter Parada's, mind.