Youth Development ● Apr 09, 2015
FAS officially unveils Michel Sablon as Technical Director
Written By: Kenneth Ho
The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) officially unveiled Mr Michel Sablon as the association’s Technical Director on Thursday afternoon, at the Jalan Besar Stadium VIP Lounge.
Mr Sablon will be on an initial two-year contract and he will oversee the development of football in Singapore, while providing recommendations to the FAS in its bid to host the Under-17 World Cup in either 2019 or 2021.
“Michel is someone we are convinced is the best person today to further strengthen our football development. He has the experience of winning with a young team, and he also has experience at all age groups,” FAS vice-president Edwin Tong said.
The Belgian comes with a huge reputation. He was Belgium’s football National Technical Director at Royal Belgian Football Association and during his tenure, the nation produced a slew of top players currently plying their trade in the top leagues around Europe.
Mr Sablon shared that he was attracted by the FAS’ vision of developing football in the nation and asserted he is here for the long term.
“I had the opportunity to meet the management of the FAS several times, and I was impressed by a lot of things, mostly the leadership, the management,” he added.
“But most of all, the difference was the passion to make things better in football and to improve the level of football in Singapore.”
However, Mr Sablon cautioned against expecting immediate results.
“The first step is to believe the programme can help the players be better players. The next step is to convince the clubs and schools that that is the best way to develop youth players.
“But it will take time to convince people. There will always be people who say, that’s not the right way.”
FAS Vice-President Bernard Tan said the committee is fully behind Mr Sablon as they believe he will be the driving force behind their bid to host the U17 World Cup in the future.
“At this present moment, the FAS has a target and vision we want to bid for the U17 World Cup,” Mr Tan said.
“All preparations are there for us to focus on the bid. Where we have to work with the technical director on is to assess whether the time frame is realistic, or whether we should actually have a different time frame.
“I think we look at Michel’s record, he comes with a pedigree, one of the reasons why we appointed him was his proven track record of transforming a system.”
