Together, these two articles illustrate the comparative effectiveness of the youth development programmes of some key sports, compared with our de facto national sport, football. I find hockey hopeful, athletics awesome and sailing splendid. Sadly, football is floundering.

Singapore hockey chief Annabel Pennefather knows exactly what her sport needs - more public funding - to produce a competitive challenge at the Youth Olympic Games in August 2010. She knows how to get it too.

Singapore Athletics Association technical director Ralph Mouchbahani is full of confidence, insisting there is no need to improve the association's efforts in youth development because they are already at an optimum.

National sports associations, which use public money, should operate in precisely the same mode. Singapore-

Sailing's spirited supremo, Mr Low Teo Ping, has boldly set the target of not just one or two, but three gold medals. Way to go, Mr Low!

But my heart sank when I read about my favourite sport, football. Singapore's highest-ranked football officer, Mr Steven Yeo, general secretary of the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), shied away from a basic tenet of high-performance sports today: target-setting. The hunger to compete and win is what drives today's top athletes. But when asked about a target, all Mr Yeo could offer was: 'It's not right to get overly competitive and expect these youngsters to win medals. More importantly, the YOG is about showcasing Singapore's young footballers.' In other words, it is all right for our junior footballers, who are the Lions of the future, to lose every match in front of an expectant, paying home crowd. With such a defeatist mindset, it is no wonder the S-League has been dubbed the 'Secondary-

League'. Even free admission has failed to attract significantly more fans.

While I recognise it will require a mammoth effort from our youngsters to win a medal, shouldn't FAS have at least set a target of, say, a place in the quarter-finals or round of 16? If winning is only a secondary concern of FAS, why does it bother to recruit foreign-born players and deprive native-born Singaporeans of international match experience?

I think I have said enough. The ball is now firmly at Mr Yeo's feet. Make full use of it, sir. Don't lose possession.

Michael Ang York Poon