User:C18ver/2021 King of Triple Threat

The 2021 King of Triple Threat is the 3rd season of Singapore's premier amateur club futsal tournament organised by the SGYF. The tournament was held over two venues. The group stage matches were held in Buangkok while the finals were held in Serangoon. The winners earned the right to play in the Community Shield against the Pasir Ris Youth Futsal champions however the latter competition went defunct.

Teck Whye Squad were the defending champions and kept their title in Serangoon.

Teams
The number of teams increase from four in 2020 to nine teams. The nine teams were split into three groups of three. Teck Whye Squad had a unique situation where they sent in both their main team and reserve squad. As such, both teams could not be drawn into the same group and would not play each other unless both teams qualified for the finals round.

Hawkguys were disqualified after their matches in Group A, bringing the number of teams down to eight. Their results were expunged.

Format
All nine teams were split into three groups of three. The group stage matches were to be played in two halves of ten minutes each. Slide tackles were prohibited and shots from within the defending half were only allowed. The three group winners will play in a single round-robin for the final.

Group A
Hawkguys faced disqualification from the 2021 King of Triple Threat and subsequently the 2022 Merlin Regionals due to their failure to manage their players' unsportsmanlike behavioiur.

Final
The three group winners played in a single round-robin for the finals. The finals were held in Serangoon's open field.

Hawkguys controversy
During Group A's fixtures, Hawkguys Futsal Team were the subject of controversy due to their unsportsmanlike conduct. In the matchup against Elite Predators, Hawkguys were the source for numerous professional fouls and their reaction towards the referee's calls blew the situation into a bigger proportion. Two of Hawkguys' players constantly protested against the calls of the fouls despite both camera angles showing they never got the ball in their tackles.

The players showed dissent towards the competition's rules too. The rules stated that due to risks of injury with no standby medical professionals, no players were allowed to slide (to perform a tackle) at all times. Hawkguys were guilty of this and even led to a penalty given against them against Elite Predators and subsequently Punggol FC.

Hawkguys' heat could not be contained against Punggol FC too as two fights happened during the match. The first was a small brawl after Hawkguys' forward had tripped Punggol FC's Shafreen. He reacted to the call by getting into Shafreen's face in which the Punggol captain did not retaliate and walked away. Punggol's Sufi however, marched towards him and an exchange of words led to Hawkguys' defender shoving him away with Sufi having needed to be pulled away by a Hawkguys substitute.

The second brawl happened towards the end of the match when during a Hawkguys corner, Punggol's goalkeeper Imanullah was adjourned to have punched the same Hawkguys forward in the head. As the forward laid on the ground, Imanullah made a gesture to him that led to the forward getting up in anger. This led to the Hawkguys bench running into the pitch to intervene as the forward was led away from the scene by the same defender. Imanullah was seen exchanging words with one of the substitutes which led to a series of pushing and shoving.

Due to Hawkguys' inability to control their behaviour or keep their players in check, the official declared the match to have been abandoned. At the time of the match, Hawkguys were top of Group A with six points and a goal difference of +9 and would've qualified for the finals in Serangoon. However, due to their behaviour, the SGYF made the decision to disqualify them from the competition and consequently from the 2022 Merlin Regionals. Two days after the decision, Hawkguys released a statement on their Instagram: This is a contact sport... the intensity will always be there.

Yes, there were heated moments on that day (12 December 2021)... but at the end of the day we still maintain a good relationship with both teams involved. Have you seen El Classico (having) brawls? Have you seen both teams (Real Madrid and Barcelona) disqualified from La Liga? It's not as if we as people are naturally angry. Our behaviour is explained by several factors. But one factor all three of our teams can agree on is due to the organiser.

We waited patiently for the matches to begin, however, the organisers could not secure the pitch for us. Secondly, the referee made poor judgements for both sides and could not control the situation when things got out of hand. Thirdly, it felt as if the organiser could not take control of the tournament. It felt as if us three teams had to set up everything. Lastly, the weather was very hot and we were behind schedule on a Sunday when our priority was to finish as quickly as possible and go back home. How could we be expected to play in good moods when such things happen? It's as if the AFF Championships in Singapore were organised by Myanmar or Laos at the host's request.

This is Hawkguys' statement and we request that before any decision is made final, we receive the match footage in order to clear up any misunderstanding and fix the relationship we have to both Elite Predators Football Club and Punggol Football Club.

In the event that we do get disqualified, we hope that whoever qualifies to the finals (Punggol FC) win the trophy for us.

Teck Whye teams in the final
Teck Whye Squad submitted two teams into the competition in Teck Whye Squad Bravados and Teck Whye Squad. The Bravados squad were made out of veteran members and regarded as the first team while Teck Whye Squad were regarded as the reserve team due to the player population being made up of new members. Due to both teams being under the same name, they were not permitted to be drawn into the same group and would not be able to play against each other unless both teams made it into the final which they did. This gave the unique turn of events that both teams played against each other in the finals. As a result of Teck Whye Bravados winning the finals, both teams were regarded as trophy holders but the players would not share first placed medals.