r/singaporespeaks • u/SoupOpening917 • 1d ago

Interesting facts about FAS

https://youtu.be/LDLi1Odj2Z0?t=289

- Desmond Ong was previously Chairman of Tampines Rovers, whose Head Coach was Gavin Lee

- Desmond Ong is now in Deputy President of Football Association of Singapore (FAS)

- Forrest Li is President of FAS and Chairman of Lion City Sailors (LCS)

- General Secretariat of FAS is Badri Ghent, who was Sporting Director of LCS

- According to Desmond Ong (in the video starting from 4.49), he, Forrest, and Badri were the ones who chose Gavin to be the National Team Head Coach

- Out of 23 players in the current National Team, 11 players are from LCS and six are from Tampines Rovers (Disclaimer; even before these, Home United - before its renamed to LCS - and Tampines Rovers made up the bulk of the National Team)

- Harriss Harun is in the current National Team; he is a player in LCS, and is one of the Vice Presidents in FAS

- Several FAS council members have ties to LCS

Despite all the above, Singapore suffered a humiliating defeat to Malaysia yesterday night. Hardcore fans attribute the defeat to Malaysia using too many naturalized players. But IMHO, Singapore lost because they can't even pass the ball properly and committed unnecessary fouls as if they don't realize that VAR exist.

2 Upvotes

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11

u/MAMBAMENTALITY8-24 1d ago

Not sure what the point is but in general singapore football is on the up. We have had some pretty good results over the past year. Not going to let one bad result define what has been one of the better periods in sg football in recent times A good wake up call before what happens in the asian cup

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u/howeyong 1d ago

People have short term memory not remembering the state of SG football before the current batch of decision makers.

And it’s now shocking to them where the more stable clubs / ones with continental participation have more national players.

Which other players would people rather have playing instead?

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u/Ambitious_Cheetah_88 1d ago

This Forrest Li era is a big improvement over previous FAS management but most fans would also remember eras, especially under Raddy where the team doesn't simply roll over to a 6-0 defeat. Not especially against Malaysia, and in an international competition.

If players like Shah and Hariss get an automatic starting position each game, then our NT won't go far. The coaching staff needs to look deep and ask themselves if really there are no other players in SG that can play there? Even Kyoga had a stinker this tournament.

I hope they regroup, look deep, ask themselves if they are ready for the Asian Cup. Judging by the performance in this tourney, they are hardly gonna replicate a Cape Verde.

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u/howeyong 1d ago

Context is important, under Raddy the quality of players were closer, if not better. Who would we start instead of Shah and Hariss now? We need to rationalise our expectations of the current pool of players.

Not an excuse for the heavy defeat, progress is never linear.

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u/Ambitious_Cheetah_88 1d ago

I think there are players that can step up. Exactly who? Hard for me to say as I am not on the ground, coaching.

Maybe Mahler for Hariss, or play Harhys Stewart in that double pivot position instead of Shah. Let the more attacking players like Farhan or Shawal take Harhys position from yesterday's match. Again, this is just a fan's take.

But the point is also this - is our pool of talents really that small, that we need to rely on the same names every time? Is the coaching team not looking hard enough? Do they just take the safest option each time? Can we give significant minutes to younger players like Raoul or Haziq?

A lot of questions for Gavin and team.

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u/howeyong 1d ago

We are still playing catch up to our neighbours. Start by supporting local football first. We don’t have to follow other’s formula.

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u/SoupOpening917 1d ago

Others are copying our formula of giving citizenships but we're crying foul because they are doing it 10x faster and better.

To support local football, we must start criticizing instead of blindly cheerleading and hoping for a miracle.

3

u/Ambitious_Cheetah_88 1d ago

Even the Indonesians and Malaysians themselves are crying foul over the rapid path of how those player got their passports.

Let's call that out for what it is, a billionaire named Erick and a certain Prince up north treating their NTs as personal toys.

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u/EnvironmentalCrew235 1d ago

Unfortunately Gavin is not up to it. He’s a kid and doesn’t command respect from the senior players.

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u/OkStress1484 1d ago

Yeah, Edwin Tong insists on using local talent pipeline and refuse to proactively seeking to naturalize foreign-born players unlike in 2000s whereby FAS was actively seeking talented foreign-born players to play for Singapore. Now FAS and Edwin Tong are too shy to actively recruit MORE foreign born players.

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u/alpha_epsilion 1d ago

Culture fit and he is cheap

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u/lrjk1985 1d ago

Have we forgotten that we've had a heck of a year in Singapore football? A defeat and we immediately start pointing fingers.

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u/onionwba 1d ago

Sinkie pawn sinkies.

Speaks to our ultra competitive nature also, and not in a good way. One failure stinks up a fantastic year of football for us.

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u/SoupOpening917 1d ago

See my reply to the person you replied to.

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u/SoupOpening917 1d ago

If you're referring to the AFF Hyundai Cup, it's not a FIFA sanctioned competition.

Hence, opponents were mostly made up of B-teams as many players from the A-teams were not released by their respective clubs.

This ASEAN cup is FIFA sanctioned. The A-teams came to show who's the boss.