Commentary: A star coach could buy FAS the time it needs to fix Singapore football

SINGAPORE: Just over two months into the reign of a new management of Singapore football, fans are growing somewhat impatient.

The appointment of billionaire Forrest Li as president of the Football Association of Singapore in end-April was heralded as the beginning of a new era. Many envisioned millions being poured into the ecosystem out of Li’s pockets and sweeping changes to our national teams and FAS itself.

Instead, the recently announced changes to the Singapore Premier League hardly fire up the imagination. Next season, Singapore’s top professional league will have eight teams instead of nine last season, they will play 21 games in the league instead of 32 and the number of foreigners in the starting line-up will increase to seven from six, raising concerns about the development of local players. The U-21 league has also been replaced by SPL2, essentially a reserve league for the SPL clubs.

Behind the scenes, there have been some changes to the technical team coaching teams that have gone largely unnoticed, especially the increase of full-time staff for the Young Lions, a crucial move especially with the Southeast Asian games looming, and the quiet retiring of FAS technical director Michael Browne.

The most headline-worthy development was the resignation of Singapore football head coach Tsutomu Ogura for personal reasons. This leaves Singapore looking for its fourth national coach in six years.

While Ogura’ 18-month tenure had its critics, at least two insiders told me they had wanted Ogura to stay on as head coach and take on an even bigger role within FAS. This was pretty much reflected in FAS’ statement on his resignation.

Those who worked closely with Ogura, including myself, saw what a force he was behind closed doors.

His opening game as Lions coach - where we came back from two goals down to hold China to a 2-2 draw in the World Cup qualifier in March last year - showed us what was to come, that this was a Singapore team that was going to fight on the pitch, even against opponents better than them.

Off the pitch, Ogura was instrumental in strengthening relationships between clubs and FAS, and was seen by most in the fraternity as a seasoned professional and a breath of fresh air.

His departure, therefore, leaves an FAS leadership that has yet to even settle in scrambling.

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