Michael Angs letter in ST Forum today declares: The plain truth is that Singapore lacks the potential to consistently match the Asian giants. I somewhat disagree with him, despite the relative sense and feeling of negativity towards the level of football malaise in Singapore. I am of the opinion that we do have the talent, and we do have the potential to consistently challenge our Asian counterparts. An affluent city state and nation with limited resources, including footballing talent, will always mean that we have our backs up against the wall. But it does not mean that we cannot get our act together. We just need the right systems and expertise in place. This is where I would like to refer to a story in Suntimes today in which national under-23 coach Aide Iskandar is interviewed and in which he laments the lack of Chinese footballers coming through the ranks. Aides statements are assumed to be the view of the organisation he represents. The problem of not having Chinese players is not a new issue and is an age old one which has been discussed over and again over the last two decades by various sports journalists. The question which should be answered is WHY are the Chinese (or Indians, as Aide also mentions) not wanting to play the game at the highest level? This is clearly missing in the interview with Aide, but it isnt his fault or the fault of the writer. Has the national body done or commissioned a research into the subject since it appears to be a bugbear and a possible reason for its continued lack of achievement? The first step to finding solutions is to recognize that there is a problem. The subsequent step would be to understand why the problem exists and only then can solutions be found. Have a good Sunday folks and God bless. :-)
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 04:11:11 +0000
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