SINGAPORE – When it was announced in December 2015 that Brazilian football star Ronaldinho would be setting up a football academy in Singapore, the news created such a buzz that football fans turned up in droves to catch a glimpse of the World Cup winner when he subsequently arrived here for the soft launch of the academy.

Two years on however, the academy, which had signed a Memorandum of Understanding to partner S.League club Tampines Rovers, has closed down without even conducting a single training session.

This comes after International Football Group (IFG), the company in charge of setting up the academy, ceased operations earlier this year due to financial difficulties.

A fully-owned subsidiary of Eagle Sports International (ESI) Pte Ltd, which was founded in September 2014, IFG described itself as a local integrated football solutions company with plans to become the next leader in sports marketing across Asia.

Now however, TODAY understands that former IFG employees are owed up to eight months’ salary by the company’s directors Gane Ramachandra and Nicole Liu, a former Chinese national who is now a Singapore citizen, and that at least six former staff have not been paid since July 2016.

Nicole Liu, a former Chinese national who is now a Singapore citizen, is one of the company’s directors. Photo: International Football Group FB page

Gane is the brother of lawyer Krishna Ramachanda, who is also the chairman of Tampines Rovers.

A post on IFG’s Facebook page last week, which TODAY understands was written by a former IFG staff, said IFG had “ceased operations” since last December.

It added: “The directors…had misled staff into working for IFG and its parent company ESI for an extended period of time without pay.

“Staff were promised that salaries will be paid with each passing week but the promises were not fulfilled.

“Staff are owed between six to eight months’ salary and the directors had forced staff to backdate their resignations that were signed in December 2016 to October 2016 to avoid CPF commitments on the promise that all outstanding salaries will be paid in December 2016.

“The salaries remain unpaid and staff were sent an unofficial private email to inform them that the company will be liquidated in January 2017.”

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES

TODAY understands that IFG’s financial difficulties began as early as January 2016, when staff had their salaries delayed by a week. By June 2016, the company was no longer paying salaries to its staff.

According to two former IFG employees who spoke to TODAY, Gane and Liu, however, told staff to continue working and promised to pay the owed salaries in the subsequent months.

This went on till November, when Gane sent an email out to the employees acknowledging problems with IFG’s cash flow. IFG then converted all of their staff to part-time “consultants”.

TODAY obtained a copy of the email that Gane sent out to the staff on Jan 22 this year informing them of IFG’s liquidation.

In it, Gane wrote that Liu had been “declared a bankrupt” and that “letters of demands have been filed and (it) is a matter of time before the companies are liquidated.”

He added that it was only a “matter of time” before he too would face bankruptcy.

“I apologise to all staff whom I have brought on board and shared on the vision and plans and trust you all have had in the company and placed on me,” he wrote in the email.

“I am not in a position to pay you all now and our lenders but I will personally try over time to slowly make good and make up for things.

“Please give me time to regroup myself and rebuild my finances.”

But a former IFG employee, who declined to be named, told TODAY that no official documents were ever provided to verify Liu’s bankruptcy.

He added that both she and Gane have been uncontactable since the email was sent.

Attempts by TODAY to contact Liu and Gane were also unsuccessful.

LEGAL ACTION

The ex-employee said those who were still owed their salaries were now considering pursuing legal action against Liu and Gane.

“We’ve tried going to the MOM (Ministry of Manpower) for help, but because our salaries are above a certain range, they are unable to assist us in this matter,” said the ex-employee.

“So for now, it looks like our only recourse might be to take joint-legal action against the directors.

“However, we need to stabilise our finances first because we haven’t been paid for so long.”

When asked why they did not lodge police reports against Liu and Gane, the ex-employee said: “We’re not sure if that will do anything to help us, or if we even have a case.

“We need legal advice before making a report, because the directors may simply hide behind the ‘bankruptcy’ card and close the matter.”

Another former employee revealed that IFG had been working with a Chinese company called Zhongti Jiaqi – which was set-up as ESI’s arm in China – to stage a national youth inter-school futsal tournament in the country.

While IFG has since ceased operations, Zhongti Jiaqi remains active and is listed as the official organiser of the tournament.

And the former employee, who also declined to be named, believes that Zhongti Jiaqi is reaping the benefits of the work that was done by IFG’s staff. A check on the tournament’s official website still shows two former IFG employees listed as part of the consultant team.

“During the period where we weren’t paid, we were tasked to work on this project to organise an inter-school futsal tournament in China,” the ex-employee said.

“We were told that the authorities (in China) would only work with a Chinese company, and that’s why Zhongti Jiaqi was set-up.

“We were also told that Zhongti Jiaqi is run by Nicole’s brother.

“So we did up all the groundwork and blueprints for organising the tournament, and brought in our own contacts to help with the project.

“But even though IFG is no more, we see that Zhongti Jiaqi is still running the tournament by using the work that we’ve done. We’ve also learn that they have gone behind our backs to approach our contacts. “It’s unfair that they’re now benefitting from this, when we’re struggling with our finances because we’ve not been paid for so long.”

Zhongti Jiaqi has not replied to TODAY’s media queries.

TODAY reached out to Tampines chairman Krishna Ramachandra, who requested for queries to be sent by Whatsapp.

He told this newspaper that the club has moved on from the Ronaldinho academy. “Over a year ago we decided not to proceed with the…academy plans as we could not agree on the commitments from Ronaldinho,” he replied.

“We also had feedback from community leaders that there were too many elitist programmes out there and that it would make accessibility to football training limited to only certain sectors which are already well served.

“We have since replaced the academy with our Tampines Gold CSR programme that involves kids at risk.”

When asked if he has been in contact with Gane, Krishna said: “Not on IFG… we haven’t done anything with Ronaldinho and IFG since 12 months ago so we have had no contact with IFG.”