(Pictured above L-R) FAS Sec-Gen Winston Lee, FAS president Mayor Zainudin and Jaguars GM Francis Lee hold the Jaguars' jersey.Only from the mouth of Mayor Zainudin Nordin, the president of the Football Association of Singapore that it's finally confirmed the returning of Tanjong Pagar United back to the S.League family after weeks of speculation in the local football fraternity.
PLAN FOR THE FUTURE
Also at the same media briefing session, the mayor shared with the members of the media the progress and the upcoming programs for the local football, which was recently thrust to the limelight following the shock disbandment of the Lions after a poor Suzuki Cup outing last month.
With the disbandment of the Lions, it was told youth players will be the cornerstone of the national team rebuilding process and Mayor Zainudin had set the target for the national U23 squad to make it to the final of this year's SEA Games football competition to be held at Palembang in November.
"FAS will rebuild the National Team with the core of the players aged Under-23. As I said before some experienced players will also be infused into the team to strengthen the National Team." explained Mayor Zainudin during the session held at the Jalan Besar Stadium.
The statement was echoed by coach Raddy Avramovic (pictured above right), who attended the session as well with FAS secretary general Winston Lee."I'm not happy with (Suzuki Cup's) result, and we are looking forward to introduce more new players to the National Team, mainly from the Young Lions." said the Serbian tactician.
"It is not something special, as we had done something like this before in 2004, when we made a new selection, we retained some of the experienced players to help those younger players then and we are just doing this again.
"But then again we can't do this (rebuilding process) if we don't plan this long before " added coach Raddy on the rejuvenating process of the Lions.
Despite the main core will be from the Young Lions (for being the base of the Pre-Olympic squad), coach Raddy assured that eligible players from other clubs will be still be considered, when he revealed that training session is actually on-going to get the squad prepared for the Olympic qualifier against Yemen in February with some of those not from the Young Lions.
RADDY REFUTED "RESIGN" CLAIMS
On the same occasion, coach Raddy set the record straight by reject the claims in the media that he offered to resign after the Suzuki Cup.
"(I think the) offer to quit as coach (as reported in the media) was not the case and at the end of the day, it's up to the FAS to decide whether I'm staying or I'm going."
"And I thought some media was unfair (on this matter) that I remained silent in some ways, it was like 'trial without jury' and some of the things said were not right." as the Lions' coach registered his unpleasantness over some misleading reports in the media following Hanoi venture which he claimed some of those eventually fueled negative public sentiments towards the team.
OTHER NOTABLE KEY POINTS OF THE BRIEFING
- The National Football Syllabus (pictured below) will be the main coaching manual that all youth coaches will use to develop young players from 8 to 18 years of age, this syllabus was endorsed and commended by FIFA and technical staff from both Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur.
- The formation of 4-2-3-1 will be adopted for all the national teams (from the youth to the senior squads) as it's deemed the most "appropriate" tactics for Singapore football.
- All local clubs (except for the Tanjong Pagar United) must have COEs (Center of Excellence) for U16, U18 in place by this season in compliment with the national youth development program.
- MOUs with some of the leading football associations and top football clubs are in the process of finalizing to adopt best practices from these established bodies in areas such as coaching, youth development, refereeing, football science and medicine as well as attachment programmes for players, coaches and referees.
- "Beep" test to be introduced to all youth players to enhance fitness levels of these players to prepare them for international matches and overseas match exposure.
I hope the Jaguars' management would be candid in answering some questions pertaining their "sitting out" in the to-be-scheduled pre-season presser, as one of the reasons why they are back in foray is that they put up a better proposal and satisfy the financial criteria that stipulated, as told.
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