FAS Annual ReportAnnual Football Association Of Singapore (April 2015 - March 2016) ANNUAL Football Association Of Singapore REPORT 100 Tyrwhitt Road, April 2015 - March 2016 Jalan Besar Stadium Singapore 207542 Tel:(65) 6348 3477 / 6293 1477 Fax:(65) 6348 6477 / 6293 3728 109904 FAS AR 2015_Cover_7.5mm.indd 1 9/19/16 2:45 PM 109904 FAS AR 2015_Cover_7.5mm.indd 2 9/19/16 2:45 PM Football Association Of Singapore ANNUAL REPORT April 2015 - March 2016 FAS Annual Report (Apr 2015 - Mar 2016) 3 109904 FAS AR 2015_Cover_7.5mm.indd 2 9/19/16 2:45 PM 4 FAS Annual Report (Apr 2015 - Mar 2016) FAS Annual Report (Apr 2015 - Mar 2016) 5 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Since coming onboard, Sablon has been working closely with his team to identify key gaps in our system as well as practical solutions aimed at overcoming the key challenges and constraints. An enhanced youth development structure for Singapore was unveiled by Sablon in the first half of 2016. The blueprint is broken down into 11 components, which were presented in a 4-3- 3 formation, including an overall development philosophy, coach education, and specialised training and development. Some of the initiatives have already been rolled out, such as the launch of the Grassroots Coaching Manual which teaches football and life skills in a fun way to children aged six to 13, and the Elite Development Manual which will hone the Dear Members and Affiliates, technical, tactical, mental and physical abilities of youths aged between 14 and 20. Another key On behalf of the Football Association of Singapore programme introduced earlier this year is the (FAS), I am pleased to present to you our Annual Goalkeeper Academy Singapore which aims to Report for the Financial Year (FY) ended 31 March educate and train promising young goalkeepers 2016. aged between 10 and 16 on the modern style of goalkeeping and technique. In FY2015, FAS continued to hire top technical talents to bring Singapore football to the next One of our goals is to revamp the schools level. We kicked off the financial year with the competition structure so as to ensure a balance appointment of Michel Sablon as our Technical in terms of quantity and quality of matches. Director in April 2015. Sablon’s distinguished Alongside the proposed new structure, we have career includes both technical and management also rescheduled some of our youth tournaments positions and as the National Technical Director so as to give our young players more time to train at Royal Belgian Football Federation, Sablon had and develop. designed and introduced a transformative 10-year master plan which revolutionised Belgian football One of the most exciting developments announced and produced a ‘Golden Generation’ of footballers by Michel is the upcoming Singapore Coaching who are now playing in top professional leagues School, which will help nurture Singapore coaches in England, Spain and Germany, among others. and put them through a robust syllabus that Michel Sablon is a world-class addition who will further is helping to develop with the Asian Football strengthen our youth development structure with Confederation (AFC). This school will be directly the aim of creating strong national teams at all overseen by Michel himself, along with Tardy and age-group levels. Mohamed Basir Ellaya Kutty, our Head of Coach Education who was previously the acting Technical We did not stop there, and more top-class technical Director at AFC staff joined FAS, including Guy Martens – renowned as the expert who developed top goalkeepers A key outcome of creating this top-class such as Chelsea FC and Belgium’s Number 1 development environment is to develop generations Thibaut Courtois – as Consulting Goalkeeper of quality footballers for Singapore, but more than Coach, Richard Tardy as Head Coach, National that, Michel has rightly stressed that it is our goal Youth Teams, Patrick Hesse as Head Coach, to produce better players and better persons. Garena Young Lions, Balder Berckmans as Fitness With the full support of our stakeholders, we are Conditioning Coach/Instructor, and Frederic De confident that our blueprint and plans will, in time, Boever as Goalkeeper Coach/Instructor. bring us strong National Teams at all levels. 6 FAS Annual Report (Apr 2015 - Mar 2016) As part of our constant efforts to improve our referees or administrators. I am pleased to note young players, our Junior Centre of Excellence that the elite teams have done well in the short (JCOE) programmes were refined. Four JCOE time they have been together, and are growing Advanced Centres and four JCOE Development from strength to strength. Centres were established for the North, South, East and West Zones. Each Centre has 10 players The major competition for the senior Men’s per age group from the Under-10, Under-11, National Team in FY2015 was the joint qualifying Under-12 and Under-13 categories. They now campaign for the 2018 FIFA World Cup and 2019 train three times a week (Advanced Centres) and AFC Asian Cup, where we were drawn in Group E twice a week (Development Centres), up from with Afghanistan, Cambodia, Japan and Syria. The once a week previously, with all sessions following Lions started well with a 4-0 win over Cambodia the philosophy of the Elite Development Manual in Phnom Penh, and followed that up with a 0-0 authored by our Technical Director Michel Sablon. draw in front of a capacity 57,000 crowd at Saitama The programme is delivered by coaches under the Stadium against a Japan side filled with the likes close supervision and mentoring of FAS technical of AC Milan’s Keisuke Honda and Shinji Kagawa staff, and will allow the young players to improve of Borussia Dortmund. They eventually finished in their ball mastery and technical skills during this third position, and secured a place in the final round “golden age” of their development. of qualifiers for the 2019 Asian Cup. The draw will be conducted in late 2016, and we are confident International exposure is key to the development of qualifying for the 2019 Asian Cup – which will of youth talents and over the past year, we placed be the first time we qualify for the continent’s most several young players on training attachments with the support of our sponsor Epson, Elijah Lim prestigious football competition. Teck Yong, Mohamad Hamizan bin Mohamad Hisham and Muhammad Nur Adam bin Abdullah Our Under-23 National Team participated in the trained with J.League side Matsumoto Yamaga 28th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games last year, FC in June 2015. Thanks to Singapore Pools and beating the Philippines and Cambodia but losing The New Paper (TNP), Joshua Bernard Pereira, to Myanmar and Indonesia to finish with six points 2015 winner of TNP-Dollah Kassim Award, and in Group A. The team failed to qualify for the Mohamad Hamizan underwent a training stint at semi-final and in line with our standard operating French Ligue 1 team AS Saint-Étienne in March procedure, a thorough post-competition review 2016. Speaking to a local reporter while he was was conducted. The key learning points gleaned in France, Joshua said: “We are not far behind from the review will be applied in our preparations them technically. However, they are definitely far for major competitions in the future. ahead of us physically. They’re really strong and bigger, size-wise. In terms of fitness, they have a One highlight for Singapore football fans during lot of stamina.” Overseas attachment stints and the past 12 months was the Barclays Asia Trophy training tours are key to the development of our that was organised at the National Stadium from players and we will continue to strive to secure the 15-18 July 2015. English Premier League giants required amount of resources and facilitate the Arsenal – who had clinched a record 12th FA Cup development of our top talents. just two months earlier, Everton, Stoke City and a Singapore Selection side competed in the biennial Significant steps have been taken to build on quadrangular tournament that was held for the existing programmes and further increase the first time in Singapore. level of interest in women’s football in Singapore. In addition to the three all-girls centres that were Arsenal, which featured FIFA World Cup 2014 started as part of our FAS Cubs Grassroots winners Per Mertesacker and Mesut Ozil, and programme, an elite women’s Under-16 team was other top-class players including Aaron Ramsey, also set up in 2015. This complements the existing ‘A’, Olivier Giroud, Laurent Koscieny, Jack Wilshere Under-19 and Under-14 Women’s National Teams and Petr Cech, won the competition after beating to create a seamless developmental pathway for the Singapore Selection Side and Everton in the female footballers. These measures not only allow semi-final and final respectively. Led by Coach V. more girls and women the opportunity to play Sundram Moorthy, the Singapore Selection team, football, but will also allow the players to become which included several young players such as role models and attract other females to be a part of Shakir Hamzah and Faris Ramli, was praised by Singapore football – whether as players, coaches, the visiting managers. FAS Annual Report (Apr 2015 - Mar 2016) 7 During the post-match press conference, Arsenal like FIFA, AFC and other Member Associations to coach Arsene Wenger noted that the Singapore develop our skills and abilities. We must, and will, side was “very electrifying” in the first half, and continue to support the less privileged in society, added: “I don’t know what they had for lunch … it through corporate social responsibility events and was difficult to get the ball off them.” fund-raising activities such as the FAS Charity Golf Day and the Singapore Pools-organised Football Stoke manager Mark Hughes, who led his team with a Heart.