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Singapore football needs foreign talent to be competitive again

I agree with Sport Singapore chief executive officer Lim Teck Yin that local football’s focus going forward should be on improving youth development and developing long-term plans (SportSG chief calls for revamp of youth development in S’pore football; Sept 13).

Performances dropped once the FAS decided to have an all-local team and the players are struggling. Photo: FAS’ Facebook page

Performances dropped once the FAS decided to have an all-local team and the players are struggling. Photo: FAS’ Facebook page

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Ivan Goh Sian Lung

I agree with Sport Singapore chief executive officer Lim Teck Yin that local football’s focus going forward should be on improving youth development and developing long-term plans (SportSG chief calls for revamp of youth development in S’pore football; Sept 13).

Looking back, the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) adopted the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme in 2000 to supplement the areas where the national team was lacking.

The first three imports were introduced in 2002 and the next two in 2003 and 2004. This had an impact on our Fifa ranking, which had dropped to 118, our lowest then, before it bounced back to 92 in 2005.

The FAS continued with the scheme until 2008, which allowed Singapore to rise from its ranking of 132 in 2008 to 110 in 2009.

There have been no imports since then, and Singapore started its slow decline.

In 2013, Bernd Stange was appointed national coach, and he decided on an entirely local team. This caused our ranking to drop further.

There are some lessons we could learn from the Singapore economy. Both our football team and our economy need foreign talent, who make Singaporeans more competitive.

Performances dropped once we decided to have an all-local team, and our players are now struggling. The FAS has indicated that it is looking into the Foreign Sports Talent scheme, but the process has been slow.

Singapore football cannot wait further, and plans should be executed concurrently.

While we introduce imports to improve standards and generate interest, we recognise that local elements, such as youth development and the proportion of local representation, are important.

It is the same as needing a controlled, continuous flow of foreign talent to supplement gaps in our economy and ageing population to ensure our economic competitiveness without losing our national identity.

I hope that the new FAS team can and will rise to the challenge.

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