Were the Lions a better team when there wasn’t an S-League? An observer of local sports seems to think so

The Letter:

This letter appeared in today’s edition of The Straits Times:

Frankly, national teams bred on Malaysia Cup were the real deal

I DISAGREE with Mr Liew Eng Leng (‘Frankly, S-League football bred better players for international glory’; last Saturday). Although Singapore did not win any reputable international titles before the S-League kicked off in 1996, the national teams bred on Malaysia Cup football lifted the country to

Asia’s elite rankings on four major occasions, with sterling performances in the 1966 Asian Games (top four), 1977 World Cup qualifiers (Asian top eight and first in South-east Asia), 1980 Olympic Games qualifiers (Asian top six) and 1984 Asian Cup finals (top seven).

The national teams of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s clearly possessed a lethal bite despite facing bigger and more ferocious foes, whereas those bred on S-League football are often left biting the dust when the going gets tough.

Although the modern-era Lions were among the top 15 performers in Asia’s 20-team World Cup third-round qualifiers in 2008, they fell to second-last in the 2011-12 edition, losing all six matches. Tajikistan and Lebanon lost to Singapore in 2008, but the 18th-placed Tajiks and ninth-placed Lebanese have improved while the Lions regressed.

Evidently, the S-League (under its current format) is not very beneficial to Singapore’s quest for international football excellence and glory.

It is true that Singapore won consecutive Asean championships in 2004 and 2007, but with the Lions supported by naturalised players, those were expected victories.

Contrary to Mr Liew’s claims, Singapore did come close to winning top regional titles before 1996, having qualified thrice for the South-east Asian Games final in the 1980s. During the S-League era, Singapore has never progressed beyond the semi-finals.

Arguably, Singapore’s 1977 and 1980 Malaysia Cup victories were akin to modern-day South Korean or Japanese league title triumphs.

South Korea and Japan are current Asian giants, while Malaysia was similarly dominant between 1970 and 1980. The Malaysians qualified for the 1972 and 1980 Olympics, confirming Malaysia as one of Asia’s top three at that time, and the standard of Malaysian domestic football was conceivably among Asia’s most robust.

Perhaps the 1977 and 1980 Lions should be bestowed a special national honour for their invaluable contributions to creating a sporting nation.

The Lions of old were roaring champions, but the S-League-bred Lions have yet to roar.

Michael Ang

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My thoughts:

I have always enjoyed reading Michael Ang’s letters on the local sporting scene which regularly appear in the newspapers.

Ang, in  case you’re wondering, is a former sports journalist with Mediacorp before he uprooted and moved to Canada several years back. In that sense, I feel that he knows his stuff, and that is why some of his observations are usually quite spot on.

The fact that he is bothering to write about local sport despite having migrated to another country shows how passionate he is about the local sporting scene. And it’s great to have such a voice because honestly, you don’t get to read  many comment pieces on local sport in the papers these days.

Ang’s latest letter appeared in The Straits Times today (31 March 2012), and once again, he makes a compelling argument, refuting another letter-writer’s theory that the S-League produces much better international players for the Lions .

Certainly, there is merit in his argument that the S-League in its present format, has not been producing quality players for the national team.

Since 2008, Singapore’s standing on the international stage has been falling. After winning our third Tiger/Suzuki Cup/Asean Football Championship in 2007, we’ve gone backwards.

To be fair, 2008 was an exciting year for the Lions. I remember being quite excited by their progress into the third round of the Asian World Cup qualifiers, and even though they did not make it to the final qualifying stage in the end, that campaign was marked by some promising displays and performances. But since then, it’s been going downhill.

We were knocked out of the semi-finals of the Suzuki Cup in 2008, and then, horror of horrors,  failed to even qualify from the  group stages at the 2010 edition, finishing third behind Vietnam and the Philippines in Group B. Taking a leaf from their seniors, our U-23 team – who had won bronze medals at the 2007 and 2009 SEA Games – did not qualify from the group stage of last year’s SEA Games football competition.

Then came the Lions’ very poor and embarrassing campaign in the third round of the World Cup qualifiers, one marked by thrashings, abject and dispirited performances, and games in which we were completely outplayed, which made every one realise how much the Lions have declined since their 2005 and 2007 heydays.

The S-League may have widened the pool for potential talent for the national team but clearly, the recent talents that are being produced are not good enough to compete at Asean level, much less Asian level.  But, to be fair to the clubs, I feel that has much to do with the kind of budgets that they are forced to operate on. When you think about it, the recent glory days of Singapore football coincided with the golden period of the S-League, from 1999 to 2003/4, when clubs had more resources to hunt down and sign good foreign players.

In the past two years, I get the sense that things have started looking a little (BIG STRESS ON ‘a little’) promising again in the S-League, although you wouldn’t have known it, given the scarce coverage given to the league by the local media. But hopefully, this will gradually build up into another golden period for the S-League, and then by extension, for the Lions.

Yours in sport

Singapore Sports Fan

FAS president Zainudin’s bombshell, as reported by Berita Harian

The report:

This report appeared today in the Asiaone website. It is a translation of the Berita Harian report on Jan 6 in which Football Association of Singapore (FAS) president Zainudin Nordin dropped the bombshell that he is disbanding the national team. You can access the story here

I feel it is important to read this story first before  the other follow-up reports that appeared in today’s newspapers (ie The Straits Times, The New Paper and Today) because it gives the full flavour of why the FAS made such a decision (which has since divided public opinion).

Do yourselves a favour — give it a read first. And then you decide whether it is a wise or foolish decision by the FAS in the first place.

Yours in sport

Singapore Sports Fan

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All players from the Lions will be dropped

(Asiaone News, 7 Jan 2011)

By Chairul Fahmy Hussaini and Hisham Hasim

All football players in the national team will be dropped in regards to their bad performance in 2010.

President of the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), Mr Zainudin Nordin, said that the current standard of Singapore’s football is at a disappointing level.

In order to save the situation, changes will be made with focus given in developing young talents in group age of 14-17 years-old and expanding the talent of the current lineup.

The harsh reality and brave decision was revealed by Mr Zainudin in an exclusive interview with Berita Harian on Wednesday.

According to him, a span of five years is needed the national team to be successfully renewed.

For the upcoming years, Singaporeans will have to be prepared to face the possibility of not winning trophies.

“That is my message to all. We will give focus to young players, develop talents as young as 14, 15, 16, 17 years old and talents’ of these players cannot be expand overnight but requires a span of four to five years before they reach the level that is required of them.

“This is what’s going to happen. I hope when we announce the changes that will be carried out, citizens will understand that, these are for the benefit of the long term and not the short term.

“Maybe half of the citizens will not be happy but we will do our best in the SEA Games and  the World Cup qualifiers although we are a team of new players.

“Although we will work hard, do not expect a miracle to happen overnight,” he said.

The SEA Games is scheduled to begin in November this year in Palembang, Indonesia while the selection of the eligibility of the World Cup is scheduled mid this year.

Mr Zainudin is firm that from all the players that will be dropped, only four players from the main 11 will be called back to be the “back-bone” of the national team that will be formed soon.

“When we proceed with the changes in the upcoming months, the national team coach, Radojko ‘Raddy’ Avramovic, will regard each player as a new player.

“All the current player will be dropped and Raddy will form a new team. When the new players are chosen, they will be based on merit,” he explained.

Last month, Raddy had given the media hints that from next month onwards, the national football team will have new faces.

This was followed by the disappointing performance during AFF Suzuki Cup in Hanoi, Vietnam recently.

Mr Zainudddin also mentioned that there were positive achievements last year, for example the success of the young football team in winning the bronze medal in the YOG.

“We will give full attention in developing our young talents,” he said.

Agreeing with the decisions, former national player, Malek Awab, 50, thinks that it was a bold move.

“It’s a good thing as it will give us a fresh start and new motivation in out national football team.” he added.

A similar response was voiced by a former national striker, Alexandre Duric, 41, said, “People are probably disappointed in the performance of the current team and FAS has to do something but it requires a long-term period to build a strong team.”

Translated by Muhammad Azman Bin Hamran from the original article first published in Berita Harian on Jan 6, 2011.

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Lions crash out of Suzuki Cup, but frankly, it could be the best thing to happen to Singapore football

The Lions crashed out of the group stage of the AFF Suzuki Cup after losing 0-1 to Vietnam tonight, the first time they have done so since 2002.

Frankly, this outcome was probably the best thing to happen.

I don’t think I could have gone on watching the Lions in this tournament without feeling more and more unhappy and dissatisfied with the state of the national team.

Let’s not beat around the bush: Singapore football has returned to the dark ages. From two consecutive Cup wins to a semi-final exit in 2008, and now this, a group stage exit. If this is not the most apt symbol for going backwards, then I don’t know what is.

We’ve returned to the late 90s and early years of the new millennium when the likes of Nasri Nasir, Rafi Ali and Zulkarnaen Zainal ruled the roost but couldn’t take the Lions forward anymore.

But what really hurt this time was watching some of our national players in action. Noh Alam Shah, Ridhuan Muhammad, Baihakki Khaizan and Precious Emuejeraye ere the worst culprits.

While Precious has always been a poor defender, one cannot help wondering what has happened to the first three in recent times.

They’ve played so poorly this time that one just cannot help wondering whether they were intentionally doing so in order to save themselves from injury and return to their Indonesian Super League clubs fully fit.

Or have they become so big-headed as a result of their being treated like stars in the ISL that they’ve come to think of themselves as the Untouchables, players who will always be picked to play regardless of form?

When the Lions suffer in defence because of injury to Daniel Bennett, lack bite in midfield because of the absence of Shi Jiayi and John Wilkinson, and have to rely on Aleksandar Duric and Agu Cashmir to deliver the goals, the state of local football can only be truly classified as really bad.

Really, let’s be frank here: how well would we have really done in the last two years without these naturalised citizens taking to the field as our Lions?

In other words, these naturalised citizens have been the strips of  duct tape that have been holding up the torn and tattered shell that is the national team all this while.

Which brings me to my next point – it is also probably time for national coach Raddy Avramovic to go.

I think he deserves a medal for what he has done for Singapore football, but I think he has also come to the end of the road as the man tasked with taking Singapore football to the next level.

We will need a new man at the helm, someone who comes in with a clean slate, with no biases, no attachments to players that were groomed during his tenure, and who can call a spade a spade.

We need someone with the guts to cull the laggards. Most importantly, we need to give this new man time to cast a fresh eye on the talent of the land and give him our blessings to take risks with new emerging talents and groom his new generation of Lions.

Does he have to be a foreigner? Maybe not.

I see some promising local coaches in the national set-up who can do the job if they are allowed to do their job, and pick their own players without interference from their bosses.

Bottom line: it hurts to see the Lions going out. But this could also be a blessing in disguise.

Let’s just hope the Football Association of Singapore has the f***king guts to do what is necessary.

Yours in sport

Singapore Sports Fan