Imposing quotas not the best way to promote youth development in Singapore football

While there have been numerous reports of systemic issues in local football, it is heartening to see that the S-League and local football are finally getting the makeover that they have needed for a long time.

Credit must be given to the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) for its recently unveiled plan to widen the pool of young players in schools and academies and to focus on youth development.

However, although there is no progress without change, not all change is progress.

This is particularly so when we consider the new requirement that mandates S-League clubs to have at least six under-23 players registered and three in the starting 11.

Proposed age caps and impositions were met with much disdain and resistance by S-League clubs in 2014 and by clubs in the National Football League in 2013 when similar proposals were put forth.

However, there still appears to be a common belief among the ruling hierarchy in Singapore football, that youth participation in the S-League needs to be engineered and mandated.

Players such as the recently retired Aleksandar Duric and Zahid Ahmad as well as current players such as Juma’at Jantan and Daniel Bennett have been and continue to be some of the fittest players in the league and prove that age is truly just a number.

The amount of hard work, care and professionalism that goes into honing their craft are exactly the qualities that we should be looking to cultivate and reward, regardless of age.

We should not be sending these players into retirement purely because of their age and the belief that younger players need to be “promoted”.

Younger players need to earn their place the same way every other player does and they should not be allowed to believe otherwise.

With the new quota, the competition for places in the starting 11 is skewed towards the young players. In the event of injuries or suspensions, the competition for places will be reduced even further and will no longer be about how well they perform in training.

Such a situation could be detrimental to our football.

COACHING AUTONOMY

One of the reasons why the proposed rule is troublesome is because it opposes the idea of coaching autonomy.

Instead of being able to pick the best possible team from the players available, S-League coaches would have their hands tied as they would now have to pick their teams with three under-23 players regardless of whether these players are ready to start a game or if they fit into the game plan.

Having to select three players due to their age also hampers a coach’s decision in terms of substitutions or tactical changes.

Furthermore, there could be absurd situations such as teams intentionally substituting their young players early on after meeting the requirement of having three of them in the starting 11.

If the league also decides that there must be three under-23 players on the field at all times, teams may be forced to play with men short if they do not have young players on the bench to replace players that may be injured.

And what happens when a team doesn’t have three youth players to start a game due to injury or suspensions?

Does the team begin the match short of players or does the league then waive the requirement for the game? And if the league waives the requirement, what is to stop teams from declaring young players unavailable for games just so that a coach can play the starting 11 he intended?

These scenarios may sound far-fetched but are extremely plausible in a 24-game season.

FAS Deputy President Bernard Tan acknowledged on Tuesday (Dec 12) that questions have been raised in relation to this regulation, adding that the FAS has told clubs that it will be liberal and allow mid-season registration of U-23 players.

Yet it is safe to say that coaches will have their work cut out for them in the new S-League season.

One of the reasons cited for the rule has been the apparent lack of opportunities in the league for young players. However, the most recent S-League season has shown that this may not be true.

All the local clubs in the league have regularly fielded players aged 25 and below and in clubs such as Hougang, Geylang and Home United, these players have gone on to become key members of the teams. This only goes to show that coaches, on their own volition, have been open to giving young players opportunities.

Coaches should thus be trusted and given the autonomy to select these young players when they feel they are ready and deserving.

This also allows coaches to ease these players into the league to acclimatise to the physical and mental demands of first team football.

When Sir Alex Ferguson first started with players like David Beckham and Paul Scholes in 1994/95, he gave them only a handful of games each.

He knew these young players would form the core of the team for the future, and gradually introduced them into the team to prevent burnout.

This aided their longevity in the game and allowed them to develop at an optimal pace. Such freedoms should similarly be accorded to the coaches in the S-League.

As the adage goes, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. We have experimented with creating protected environments for our young players in a professional league for 14 years in the form of the Young Lions.

This has not yielded the results that we have wanted, so why should we expect this new proposal to yield anything different?

HOLISTIC IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED

Another fact that we must accept is that the S-League is not an academy, it is a professional league.

Thus, the S-League cannot be viewed merely as a means to having a strong national team as has been suggested. Such a view is narrow and myopic.

The focus of youth development and the senior teams in the league are different. While the focus of youth development should be less on results and more on the development of individual players to prepare them for professional football, the focus at the senior level must be on producing results.

Better results will boost sponsorships, competition and prize money and this will draw better players, leading to brighter futures for the clubs.

This should be the aim for the administrators of the S-League. We should not be missing the forest for the trees.

Instead of engineering youth participation in the hope that this will lead to a strong national team, the FAS should prioritise improving the league holistically such that younger players are attracted to it and the league becomes sustainable.

The aim should be to reach heights where top players from the region are attracted to play in the league, thus improving the entertainment value and standard of football here.

If the league achieves this, it is more likely that our national team will be stronger in the future.

So, what can be done?

First, keep the Prime League. It allows young players to get regular playing time.

On average, the Prime League gives approximately 120 to 160 players exposure to competitive football and the chance to be called up to S-League teams.

The present proposal on the other hand reduces that amount to a mere 50, if we include the Young Lions. This seems incongruent with the proposals to widen youth participation in football.

In addition, the Prime League also serves as an important avenue for senior players to maintain match fitness or to get back into the thick of things when returning from injury or suspension.

If the Prime League has to go, we should then allow S-League teams to register 25 players, of whom six must be under-23.

Given Albirex Niigata’s intentions to begin signing local players, this rule could be extended to include them as well.

However, the decision on whether any of the players start should be left to the coaches.

Once again, the exposure of training in a professional set up would be beneficial for the players who get selected.

Countries like Belgium and Germany have enjoyed their best years with their “golden generations” recently.

Both countries have reduced the average age of their teams and have performed well on the international stage, with Germany winning the most recent World Cup.

While it appears that the FAS may be attempting to emulate this, it must be noted that neither Germany nor Belgium achieved this by imposing rules on clubs to play young players in every game.

Instead, their success has been the result of comprehensive, long-term youth development policies that has allowed them to create their own identity and brand of football.

It took them a while but their patience in seeing the process through is now reaping rewards.

Similarly, Singapore should take inspiration from the process rather than seeking a shortcut and replicating the result as if it were a template fix.

Once the right structures are in place, we will have a steady stream of good footballers coming through who will be able to earn places in teams through their own merit rather than by being the right age at the right time.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sudhershen Hariram, a lawyer with Tan Rajah & Cheah, played for Tanjong Pagar United FC in the S-League from 2011 to 2012.