I have a staff of 12, eight of whom are locals. Among the locals, two are male.

Now before you start thinking I’m some kind of Mike Newell in disguise, let me tell you that there is a law here in Singapore which states that the nation may call up all males at any time for up to three weeks at a stretch for National Service. I work in the service industry where clients want things done yesterday. If we can’t do it, there are several others out there who are lining up to take our job both locally as well as overseas.

It’s not unusual for all my staff to pull 18-hour days, six days a week. To lose anyone to three weeks' National Service will add extra stress on the remaining staff and compromise the quality of work produced. This I can't allow, both for the sake of the firm as well as the jobs of the staff who rely on clients to feed them and their families..

'To miss the tournament for the sake of club glory will be seen at best as selfish and arrogant and at worst as a form of betrayal and treason'


Which brings me squarely to the African Cup of Nations - or ANC for short.

Come January, most African players in the English Premiership will be called out by their National Football Associations for up to six weeks to compete in the continent’s most prestigious football tournament. And that’s not counting for recuperation and injury-time costs.

For the African players, like any other top footballer, there can be no greater honour than representing your country. It’s a source of  personal pride as well as an inspiration to their fellow countrymen who idolise their heroes and dream of emulating them. For some among their respective country's population, the dream is sometimes all they have to hold on to. Their presence in the national colours will stir the emotions and fever of an entire nation.

They know that on their shoulders they carry the aspirations and dreams of a country. To miss the tournament for the sake of club glory will be seen at best as selfish and arrogant and at worst as a form of betrayal and treason.

But for the clubs who are all battling for honours, the ANC comes at a most inopportune time. It is the middle of the season and a time when a combination of the fixtures and the weather will tax even the best of players. In order to overcome this, clubs know they need all hands on deck. Championships are won and lost over the winter months.

If you think the impact of the ANC on the Premiership is insignificant, consider this: There are more African players in England’s top division than from any other continent outside Europe. Chelsea relied heavily on two Africans, Michael Essien and Didier Drogba, to prop them up last season. Arsenal’s defence relies heavily on Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue. Losing them in January would deal a severe blow to the title aspirations of Chelsea and Arsenal, especially as none of their rivals will be similarly affected.

Liverpool don’t rely as much on Mohamed Sissoko with Javier Mascherano around, and Manchester United don’t have a single African player in their entire first-team squad. So Chelsea losing all five of their African players will present United and Liverpool with an absolute advantage in the title run-in.

These issues are not restricted to the top of the table. The same applies all down the league.

The simple answer to the issue of the ANC is for clubs to limit their exposure to African players. This approach has found endorsement from Jose Mourinho, who has previously made it clear that while he will retain his interest in African players, he will not enlist more than a bare minimum into his squad to accommodate the frequency of the ANC.

Is that a fair decision? I totally support it for I fully understand where Jose is coming from. I face that same decision myself, albeit in a different context. But I also recognise that the view is in itself a form of discrimination.

The Premiership is a global arena where the best of the best are enlisted to compete in front of a worldwide television audience. Every club has a player from the Americas, Asia or Oceania in their ranks and surely more will follow. In a sense, because of the league’s global nature, Premiership clubs are ‘required’ to have a player from a different continent in order to attract a following from that player’s homeland.

Everton’s excursion with Li Tie and Manchester City’s tryst with Sun Jihai, for example, were aimed - and I say this cynically even though I have yet to be proven correct - more at getting Asian recognition and following than for any other footballing reason. In exchange, these emerging players are exposed to the rigours of a worldwide television audience whose demands that they be perfect can only help to improve their game.

It’s a decent trade-off, beneficial to everyone. Why should African players be denied this exposure and the wealth both in development and money that the Premiership brings - just because they are called away for six weeks?

In defence of Mourinho, let me say this: Jose has a responsibility to the fans of Chelsea who pay a great deal of money to follow their team. All these fans expect Chelsea to win, with no excuse provided. I do not imagine anyone in the terraces will be so forgiving if Jose were to say: “We lost the title because the glory of Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon or the Ivory Coast is more important than Chelsea.”

This especially if Chelsea were heading the table at Christmas but then got overhauled by Manchester United who retained their full squad. Secondly, Mourinho has a responsibility to his other players. If Chelsea were hit by the same injury crisis that befell them last year, he would not have an Essien or a Salomon Kalou or a John Obi Mikel to cover the gaps. This would mean extra stress on other players.

Any failure on their part to perform will be detrimental to club success which may translate to no honours come year end, prompting them to move on - thus depriving Chelsea of quality that may well have stayed but for the impact of the ANC. It’s a domino effect that’s killing.

Jose’s problem in this respect may not be as acute as Arsene Wenger’s, whose defence, weak as it is already, can ill-afford to lose Toure.

Every club squad all over the world has a cosmopolitan flavour. It is ridiculous to deny that a country’s or a continent’s best are playing in a league that does not conform to a local football federation’s timetable. It is similarly ridiculous for a National Football Association to demand that their best players be released to participate in a tournament at a crucial time in the club’s campaign.

It’s akin to Ivory Coast reaching the quarter-finals only for Premiership clubs to call back the likes of Toure, Eboue, Kalou, Drogba and Abdoulaye Meite for, say, FA Cup duties. It makes a mockery of the tournament in the same way a national call up mid-season makes a mockery of a club’s campaign.

The obvious answer is standardisation of international tournaments. But the call for such standardisation has been heard before and has often fallen on deaf ears for one reason or another. The longer this call falls on deaf ears, the more clubs like Chelsea and managers like Mourinho will ostracise African players. This cannot be good for the game or for the continent of Africa - or, for that matter, a watching audience.

Unless the current regime changes, I confess I find myself supporting Mourinho and his anti African-player stance. I like the romantic ideals of supporting every player from all over the world but I find myself dictated by practical concerns.

It’s a shame. The African players in the Premiership have proved among the best the continent has to offer and they have enriched our viewing pleasure. But for the ANC, I would like to see more Africans playing. The Premiership would be a much poorer place if the Africans were missing.