More needs to be done beyond FAS’ 10 recommendations, say local coaches
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Singapore’s Jordan Emaviwe fighting for the ball with Cambodia goalkeeper Reth Lyheng during the 2023 Merlion Cup friendly tournament at the Jalan Besar Stadium.
ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO
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SINGAPORE – While local coaches agree that Singapore’s youth football development is in dire need of a refresh, there were mixed feelings about the latest attempt to boost that pipeline after the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) announced the findings of its SEA Games review on Friday.
The governing body pledged to put in place 10 recommendations,
Veteran coach Clement Teo, who led Singapore Premier League (SPL) club Hougang United and is now in charge of Cambodian Premier League side Boeung Ket, said the FAS’ proposals were a step in the right direction and “necessary for progress”.
“The 10 points are crucial for improvement and naturally there should be more,” he said. “A good foundation is one of the keys to achieving success. We have been lacking in youth development over the past five to seven years and we struggled against other Asean countries. The general direction looks interesting and now the national youth teams need to compete on a regular basis.”
Teo, 56, also highlighted how some ideas like incorporating a sports psychologist in pre-tournament preparation was the right move but should be widened.
He noted: “The Young Lions should have a full-time sports psychologist from the start. There needs to be a relationship between both parties, or they will be strangers to each other. What help can a sports psychologist do during a short period of time?”
The FAS’ decision to have greater oversight of players’ diets was another positive step, but it needed to be accompanied by greater education on the value of a nutritional meal to get their buy-in.
Acknowledging the difficulties faced by the FAS, he added: “Everyone will have their own opinions and different perceptions, but the ultimate goal is to make headway to improve Singapore football.”
Some, like Tanjong Pagar team manager Noh Alam Shah, were more sceptical. The former Lions striker, 42, who won two AFF Championships with the Lions in 2004 and 2007, said he hopes that these changes will have a lasting impact on Singapore football’s future but also labelled the review as a “bare-minimum initiative”.
Another local coach, who trains one of the SPL’s Centre of Excellence (COE) youth teams and wanted to remain anonymous, was more scathing in his assessment.
“They (FAS) missed a big key point. They want to renovate and improve the housing infrastructure, but the occupants of the household (the local players) are still very poor,” he said. “The players have to look at themselves first. They want everything to be spoon-fed.”
One of his chief gripes is the SPL’s U-23 quota, implemented in 2018 and mandating all local clubs must field at least three U-23 players in the first half. That number was cut to one in 2022.
From Friday’s announcement, the FAS appears poised to increase this requirement in a bid to increase competition time for U-23 players.
“This quota gives them undeserved game time,” said the coach who declined to be named. “Fielding these players, who are not ready but thrown into the deep end, will bring down the intensity of an SPL game.”
While FAS acting president Bernard Tan said the 2029 SEA Games in Singapore will be a realistic timeframe to see some results, the COE youth coach was unconvinced.
“I look at our U-15 games, very poor. Our youth age-group teams are getting thrashed at every level right now. I don’t expect things to have a miraculous change when they get to 22-26 years old.”
