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FAS to part ways with technical director Sablon, will ‘seriously consider’ S’porean for job

SINGAPORE — Football Association of Singapore (FAS) technical director Michel Sablon will leave the national sports association at the end of the year, said its president Lim Kia Tong on Thursday (Oct 18).

Football Association of Singapore technical director Michel Sablon at the press conference on Oct 18, 2018, to announce his resignation from the association.

Football Association of Singapore technical director Michel Sablon at the press conference on Oct 18, 2018, to announce his resignation from the association.

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SINGAPORE — Football Association of Singapore (FAS) technical director Michel Sablon will leave the national sports association at the end of the year, said its president Lim Kia Tong on Thursday (Oct 18).

Speaking at a press conference, Mr Lim said that both parties had reached the decision after “several months of discussion”.

Mr Sablon, 71, joined the FAS in April 2015 on a two-year contract, which was extended last March for another two years.

The Belgian will leave the FAS on Dec 31, three months before the end of his contract.

Mr Sablon’s appointment in 2015 had then been hailed as a coup for the FAS, as he was credited with helping Belgium produce its “golden generation” of players such as Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku, and Kevin De Bruyne. The trio were part of the team that finished third at the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Russia.

Mr Lim said on Thursday that Mr Sablon kick started “several initiatives and programmes to bring about change in the way we develop football”, and also shared his philosophy of youth development and grassroots football.

He added: “We are now in the final phase in our review of the technical department, including the National Teams, and will be making a holistic announcement very soon.”

In May 2016, Mr Sablon outlined a comprehensive plan to improve 11 main areas of Singapore football, including coaches’ education, utilisation of sports science and medicine, and changes to the format of the school competition.

He vowed then to develop a “Singaporean style of play” — defined as fast-passing, offensive football — within the next six years.

Explaining his decision to step down earlier, Mr Sablon said he did not want to disrupt work for the 2019 season, and that it was time to hand the “flag to the next one”.

He even joked that coaches who were sacked usually stayed too long, and “I didn’t want that!”

He added: “They have a pathway for (the) project and the way to go, a lot of local people in physical education and goalkeeping, they are ready to take over the programmes and to continue.

“That’s the legacy, and that’s the important thing, that I should not stay here as an expert for a long time, I should be able to develop local people who know the culture, know how to teach, and have the expertise and knowledge to continue the programmes.”

Agreeing, Mr Lim added that the FAS had brought in Mr Sablon as the “architect” to put a structure in place, and that he was not expected to remain “for years and carry it through”.

Things were not always rosy between the parties during Mr Sablon’s tenure, however, as the technical director had last year criticised the FAS executive committee in an interview with The New Paper for not publicly backing him when some members of the football fraternity questioned the efficacy of his plan for local football.

This was after a series of poor results from Singapore’s national age group teams last year, including the national under-15 side’s 11-0 loss to Japan in a qualifier for the Asian Football Confederation Under-16 championship.

His comments drew a swift rebuke from the FAS, with its then-deputy general secretary Yazeen Buhari saying he was surprised by Mr Sablon’s comments, and that it was “unproductive and unbecoming” for him to voice his frustrations in the media.

Smiling as he responded to TODAY’s question on the perceived tension between the parties, Mr Sablon said: “I’ve been married many years. There’s always tension if you have passionate people working in football.

“There are always discussions. I said at that moment that I didn’t feel there was enough support, there were reactions and we spoke about it and rectified it.”

Addressing critics of Mr Sablon, Mr Lim said they “cannot expect Sablon to achieve something within three years” as his responsibility was to produce players for the national team.

“If you co-relate his performance with the national team, I think that is not the correct way to measure it as we had relied on senior players, and there were quite a number of foreign talents,” he added.

Pointing out that the national youth teams had produced seven players for the 2018 national team, Mr Sablon said the aim was to “improve step by step”, and “not to jump from Fifa world rankings of 171 to 97”.

He added: “That’s not the way football works. If we can continue this way, work at it with passion and enthusiasm, we will have better players.”

WHO’S NEXT? 

The FAS is expected to appoint a replacement for Mr Sablon by the end of the year, and Mr Lim said they would “seriously consider a local person” for the post.

Mr PN Sivaji, who was FAS technical director from 2004 to 2007, was the last Singaporean in the top job.

Stressing that “continuity and consistency” is key, Mr Lim said Mr Sablon’s replacement would need to carry through his predecessor’s development plans and programmes to ensure long term success.

That could prove to be a challenge for the FAS, said former Singapore international R Sasikumar,

“The reality is, everyone who comes in is his own man, and he would want to put his own touch in,” he told TODAY.

“The reality is they want success out of the whole plan, but is there anything to show for it?” said the managing director of sports marketing agency Red Card Global.

“The results speak for themselves. These things are the best judge, and the numbers don’t lie.”

While he pointed out that Mr Sivaji and former national coach Vincent Subramaniam were “obvious choices” to take over from the Belgian, Mr Sasikumar said “the point is to find the right guy” for the job, regardless of nationality.

He added: “He needs to take us faster to where we need to get to, because we know where football is at the moment.”

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