SINGAPORE — The restrictions imposed on the Home United Youth Football Academy (Hyfa) have been eased, as the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) announced new operating hours for the football facility, which take effect on Saturday (Feb 11).

Under the new guidelines, Home United Football Club (HUFC), which owns Hyfa, can now conduct youth training activities on Hyfa’s two 11-a-side football pitches from 7pm to 9pm on Mondays and Wednesdays.

These are in addition to the current operating hours of 9am to 7pm on weekdays, for which public bookings are allowed.

HUFC will also be able to use the pitches for training and community engagement programmes from 9am to 6pm on Saturdays, and from 4pm to 7pm on Sundays.

However, this means Hyfa will now be unable to lease the pitches to commercial entities during the weekends.

Previously in December, the SLA had ordered Hyfa, located at 8 Mattar Road, to cease operations of the two pitches during weekends, and limited its hours of operation to 7pm on weekdays.

The SLA restrictions came about after residents living in the nearby block of flats on Aljunied Road — Block 126 — allegedly complained that the football activities conducted at the pitches generated too much noise.

The complaints were submitted to the SLA and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), as well as to Ms Tin Pei Ling, the Member of Parliament for MacPherson — the constituency in which Hyfa is located.

Although the area which Hyfa is situated on has been demarcated by the URA for sporting activities, and HUFC’s detailed plans for the Hyfa facility — which cost in excess of S$1 million to build in 2014 — were approved by the authorities, TODAY understands that SLA deemed that the noise constituted a breach in its tenancy agreement (TA) with HUFC. 

The TA included a clause requiring the tenant (HUFC) to maintain the peace of its adjoining premises.

The restrictions, in turn, forced local football academy JSSL Singapore, one of Hyfa’s main clients, to relocate their operations, which significantly affected Hyfa’s revenue. 

JSSL used to conduct full-day activities at the 11-aside pitches on weekends.

It also meant that more than 200 players from HUFC’s youth programmes, which cater to at-risk and underprivileged youths, no longer had suitable pitches to train on.

Hfya’s new operating hours, however, means that HUFC can now resume its training programmes. 

Said HUFC’s chief executive officer Azrulnizam Shah Sohaimi: “This is a positive development, and will still allow Hyfa to continue to organise some of its community as well as youth training activities.

“Hyfa is part of the MacPherson community and HUFC will ensure that our activities do not excessively inconvenience residents, while we continue to pursue Hyfa’s mission of developing local football talent and developing character in youths. We appreciate and thank our residents and the agencies for their understanding.”

Ms Tin, who is also the club adviser of S.League side Geylang International, added that the residents in Block 126 are happy with the SLA’s new guidelines for Hyfa.

“Our residents have always been very supportive of community events and sports,” she told TODAY. “The original concern was really that, at the peak of everything, they couldn’t get any rest because there were a lot of activities every weekday night and on weekends. They were asking for a breather and a reprieve. 

“With the current guidelines, I believe that this objective is being met. So far, residents that we’ve spoken with do accept the outcome and are supportive of it. The only hope they have is that they (Hyfa) will adhere to the (new) operating hours.”

A resident, who identified himself only as Mr Goh, said the new guidelines will help to balance out the need for peace in the area, while ensuring that Hyfa will not be badly affected by the restrictions.

“I understand some neighbours had it bad with the noise, so hopefully this (new operating hours) will give them some peace,” he said on Friday. 

“However, Hyfa itself needs to make money, and football pitches in Singapore are already quite scarce, so it’s good that there’s some leeway given for them to continue to go about their business.”
TODAY’s report on the SLA’s restrictions on Hyfa last month sparked a strong reaction online, with netizens expressing outrage over the decision.

An online petition was then started by a Billy Jones on the petition website Change.org, titled “Revoke the bizarre decision to curtail the Hyfa”, which garnered over 2,100 signatures.

When TODAY conducted a survey among residents of Block 126 recently, this newspaper found that of the 46 units that responded, residents of six units described themselves as either “affected” or “very affected” by the noise from Hyfa. 

Residents from the remaining 40 units said they were either “unaffected”, or called the noise “tolerable”.

There are 76 units in the block. Thirty units did not take part in the survey.