Replies to Forum ● Aug 11, 2016
FAS’ Reply To Article Dated 20 July, titled “Most of Golden Generation gone”
We refer to the article “Most of Golden Generation gone” (The Straits Times, 20 July 2016).
As Head Coach, National Youth Teams Richard Tardy said in his comments to the reporter, rejuvenation and renewal of teams across the various age groups is a normal part of football development. We are however disappointed that the reporter chose to omit an important part of Mr Tardy’s comments, where he highlighted the fact that despite natural attrition, around three quarters of the 2010 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) football team is still playing football – which is a good number.
We were also surprised to see that the sidebar accompanying the article, which listed some players from the 2010 YOG team, left out several players who are contracted to S.League clubs. These include Irfan Asyraf (Garena Young Lions), Amirul Iskandar (Home United FC) and Syazwan Zin (Hougang United FC), among several others. It therefore presents a picture that half of that squad is no longer involved in football – which is untrue.
A major part of the Football Association of Singapore’s (FAS) responsibilities is Football Development – this includes the development of young footballers, with the long-term aim of eventually benefitting the National Team.
To this end, our Technical Director Michel Sablon recently unveiled an enhanced football development blueprint, which underlined the need for more infrastructure to further develop Singapore football. While it remains difficult to predict the career trajectory of any 15-year-old, we remain confident that with enough support from all stakeholders, the plan laid out by Mr Sablon will help to widen and deepen our football talent pool in terms of both players and coaches.
We are grateful for the positive feedback we have received since Mr Sablon’s presentation, and will continue to work hard to bring it to fruition together with our stakeholders.
Varatha Rajan
General Manager, Youth Development
