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

CNA

18 hours ago

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 The U-21 league has also been replaced by SPL2, essentially a reserve league for the SPL clubs.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.
CUSP OF MAKING SINGAPORE FOOTBALL HISTORY
But as they say, with every crisis, there is also an opportunity.
There is no more high-profile change in any football federation around the world than the appointment of a head coach for the men's senior national team. This gets fans talking even more than the change of a president, because a coach directly influences results on the pitch.
Ogura left us arguably on a high. Singapore are in the start of the Asian Cup qualifying campaign, and he's left us top of our group, where only one of the four teams will go on to play in the Asian Cup group stages.
Singapore has never qualified on merit before, and only once played in the group stages in 1984 as we were the host nation. Hence, Ogura is leaving us on the cusp of making Singapore football history. There will be high expectations for the next coach.
Whether a new coach will come in time for our double-header against India in October is unclear, and it might very well be interim coach Gavin Lee, formerly the head coach of Tampines Rovers who finished second in the SPL, who takes the reins for those two matches.
That continuity would make tactical sense, seeing as Lee had been Ogura's assistant and will provide some consistency in the training models going into those crucial matches.
AND THE NEXT COACH IS …
But discussions are rife among fans about who should be our next coach.
Some favour a local appointment, such as former national player Aidil Sharin, currently the head coach of Kuching City, a club in the Malaysian Super League (MSL).
Aidil's resume is respectable: He steered Kedah to win Malaysia FA Cup glory in 2019, took Kuching City from 14th place to 4th in the 2024-25 MSL, and was recently name Malaysia's Coach of the Year.
While clearly competent, it's doubtful he has the kind of star power to make the average Singapore football fan start packing the stands again. Without diminishing Aidil's achievements, a transition from someone who has coached Japan in the World Cup Finals and the Olympic Games, to one whose experience are clubs in the ASEAN leagues, is unlikely to spark the kind of excitement that Singapore football sorely needs.
Others call for a bold regional move, such as South Korean Shin Tae-yong, who was unceremoniously dumped by Indonesia in January after he led them to some amazing achievements at senior, U-23 and U-20 levels.
He also led Indonesia into the latter stages of the Asian World Cup qualifiers, the only ASEAN nation to do so. And after six matches, Indonesia was sitting third in a group with powerhouses like Japan, Australia and Saudi Arabia.
Yet even Shin, for all his achievements, isn't really seen as a world-class name, though he is as elite as they come in this part of the world. His appointment would excite only the most hardcore of Asian football fans.
A STAR APPOINTMENT
To truly energise Singapore football, the FAS needs to make an appointment so big that even the most casual fan would recognise.
The average Singapore football fan is brought up on a steady diet of the English Premier League, and the World Cup and European Championships. We are familiar with all the biggest names in world football.
And on top of that, we've been engineered to think of Singapore as being world class in almost every aspect - except our football, where most Singaporeans still think of us as being a backward nation.
Landing a head coach of a word-class calibre would signal a real change to our status quo, and fuel the belief that Forrest Li is making good on a promise of taking Singapore football to the next level.
Who could such a coach be?
Jurgen Klopp, the manager who led Liverpool to win their first EPL title in 30 years, is of course the dream. But he is clearly unavailable. He is currently the Head of Global Soccer for Red Bull and has expressed several times that he is not looking to go back into coaching.
Which other names might ignite an outpouring of excitement?
Zinedine Zidane, who's been waiting to be chosen as France's national team coach since 2021. Hailed as one of the greatest footballers in the world in his prime, Zidane would be a name even the most casual fan would be excited about.
Joachim Low, a World Cup winner as Germany's head coach, and unemployed since 2021. He's indicated that he would like to continue coaching a national team and not a club side.
Ange Postecoglou, a serial second season winner who most recently led Tottenham Hotspur to their first major trophy in 17 years, and their first European trophy in 41. Postecoglou is also familiar with Asia, having led Australia to the Asian Cup in 2015, and Yokohama Marinos to their first J1 league title in 14 years, back in 2019. He was unceremoniously sacked by Spurs after winning the trophy and making an entire generation of Spurs fans cry.
Any of these names would send shivers down the football fanbase's spine, and almost certainly guarantee 50,000 fans in the National Stadium regularly.
Optics-wise, it would also be the strongest sign that the Forrest Li era has begun with a bang.
Would it be an expensive statement, and possibly fiscally irresponsible? Probably, but football fans care more about performance and results.
Would such an appointment solve the root problems of Singapore football? No, but it would buy a whole lot of time and cover for the leadership to fix things.
And even if it might not immediately take our football results to the next level, it would certainly do that for our fan interest.