The Singapore football association has just unveiled plans on a new national football project that is supposed to lift the quality of football in the Asian country. Over a decade over the end of the Goal 2010 initiative, the new project is said to offer opportunities to young Singaporeans to enter football early in their age.
Supported by the Ministry of Culture, Community, and Youth, the project will create strong opportunities for young Singapore players. It will offer high-quality training facilities supported by strong coaching, science, and technology that should lift the quality of football in the country.
The Singapore Premier League is supposed to get the biggest boost out of the project. Still searching for a place among Asia’s top football leagues, the league was revamped a couple of years ago to give better opportunities to younger players. With the new project, it should get a significant boost that will surely strengthen the national team. Premier League matches should get much bolder and bring in more fans in the near future, at least to the hope of many experts.
New Talent Pathways
According to Edwin Tong, Singapore’s Minister of Culture, Community, and Sports, the level of quality of football is “not where it should be”. With the new national project, the Ministry will strive to uplift Singapore’s football. It should build a sustainable and resilient football ecosystem. In return, it should fuel the national team with a regular supply of talented players that will take it to the World Cup and beyond.
The ambition is to take the national football team to the 2034 World Cup. Experts are adamant that the road ahead will be tough considering the quality of Singaporean football at the moment. However, the new national project should give results in around a decade, with the 2034 World Cup a milestone.
It should open up new talent pathways that will help young players emerge from obscurity. With talented coaching, technology, and sports science all included in the project, it should help many young players realize their talent. The project was announced on March 8 during the Ministry’s Committee of Supply debate.
There will be no significant delays in implementing it. It begins right away, with 8 pillars to lift the football standards set in a phased approach.
The Eight Pillars of Implementation
The football project has adopted a phased approach over 8 pillars. Each one will try and shape young players into accomplished footballers that should take the quality of Singapore football up a notch. First and foremost, FAS will establish a standardized National Football Curiculum that will be adopted in primary schools. It is supposed to raise the number of football coaches that will help young players develop.
The latter phases involve cooperation with the Ministry of Education for enhanced coaching support in secondary schools. MCYY will also explore overseas partnership football academies linked to professional football clubs that can offer scholarships for rising talents. The government will work closely with respective authorities to tap support avenues for eligible football players. The overall quality and capacity of coaches and academies will be raised for quality infrastructure that will surely help young talents develop.
It will be a mammoth task, but the government has set its sights on it. The ultimate goal is the World Cup in 2034 where Singapore may arrive with a core of young and talented players that rose through the ranks of the national project.
At the moment, Asia’s top-ranked football team is Japan, with Singapore sitting low at the 158 spot in FIFA rankings. The all-time ranking was achieved in 1993 when the country rose to 73rd in the world. The new project Singapore football will embark on should help get the country higher in the rankings, and possibly developer a new strategy that will help the national football team overtake Japan on the rankings list.
