Youth framework to take S’pore football out of doldrums

SINGAPORE – After a dismal 12 months of defeat, disappointment and an all-time low ranking of No 173 for the Lions, the road to redemption for Singapore football will begin with a three-point plan for youth development outlined by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS).

Unveiling the plan at a media conference after the FAS Annual Congress at the Holiday Inn Singapore Orchard City Centre on Thursday (Nov 16), the national sports association said that their youth strategy is aimed at widening the base of players, improving the quality of coaches, and increasing opportunities for youth to play football.

The FAS is hopeful that Singapore football can reap the benefits in five to 10 years’ time, and the ultimate aim is to develop talented young players to compete in a professional league, and eventually the national team.

In his speech delivered at the congress, FAS president Lim Kia Tong said: “Results (of the national team) have not been ideal and we acknowledge that a lot of work needs to be done. We are putting in place systems that will help Singapore’s football progress in future. We may not see an improvement in the results immediately, but we believe that the results will show in due time and we ask for your patience.

“With more playing football, we hope the talent pool will get bigger and the future of football, especially for our national teams will be brighter.”

DEVELOPING YOUNG FOOTBALLERS

The goal of the youth development framework, said the FAS, is to increase the number of students from primary schools, secondary schools and tertiary institutions from its current figure of 3,000 to 13,000 by 2022.

In order to achieve that, the FAS will train current and new teachers on how to use its technical manual for coaching kids, as well as provide schools with equipment.

Changes will also be made to its existing football academy programmes, with the Junior Centres of Excellence (JCOEs) to be turned into Development Centres for primary schools. In collaboration with ActiveSG, the centres – which will be affiliated to the S-League clubs – will also play in a league or competition. S-League clubs or private football academies can also set up their own development centres, which are endorsed by FAS. The primary inter-school competition will be revamped to Under-10 five-a-side and Under-12 8-a-side matches, and the proposal is for losing teams to compete in a plate and bowl system.

At the Secondary School level, 15 School Football Academies (SFAs) will be established for Under-14 and Under-17 players. Touted as specialist football schools, the SFA will kick off with five schools – Singapore Sports School, St Gabriel’s Secondary, Hong Kah Secondary, St Patrick’s School, Seng Kang Secondary – for 2018, before increasing to 15 in 2020. To ensure regular high quality games, the SFAs will play in 15-team competitive leagues organised by the FAS instead of the National inter-school competition.

The FAS’s National Football Academy (NFA) will be renamed as the FAS Football Academy (FFA) to dispel previous perceptions that the NFAs were the gateway to the national age group teams. Talent scouting systems will be put in place at the academies and development centres to spot promising young players.

S-League clubs will be affiliated to schools in their community or precinct, and they will help conduct coaching and fitness sessions, and engage in school activities.

S-LEAGUE 2.0

The FAS also addressed concerns about the future of the S-League, particularly with talk of a funding cut of almost half – from S$16 million to S$8.5 million – expected for the 2018 season making the rounds in recent months.

Their proposed plan for the 21-year-old league will focus on four pillars: youth development to include promising young players in a professional league, coach development and club administration, shared services for cost efficiency, winning consistently and developing a vibrant football culture.

Youth development initiatives will see the FAS introducing competition rules for the S-League’s six clubs to recruit six Under-23 players for their squads, with a minimum of three under-23 footballers to feature in the starting 11 for each match.

Acknowledging that there is much room for improvement in the S-League, Mr Lim said: “The management of the S-League must be revamped and the culture of the officials and the players of the S-League must change. The message that no one will continue or be even interested to fund any unattractive products must be clearly heard.

“Although the funding issue has yet to be officially confirmed… We are in the advanced stage of discussion and we hope that we can make a positive announcement in the very near future.”

FAS vice-president Edwin Tong added: “We recognise that the product coming out of S-League in the last few years has not been as good as we like it to be. As a result the end product, the selection base (of players) that the national coach has is limited.

“We see it as fixing the problem, we have to look at long term stability as well, there has to be a continual pipeline.” ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RAYMOND THAM