FAS revamp plans get MCCY’s support
The Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) is fully supportive of the revamp plans laid out by the new Football Association of Singapore (FAS) council to revive the sport.
In yesterday's debate on the ministry's budget, MCCY Parliamentary Secretary Baey Yam Keng said: "These are encouraging moves and the football fraternity has responded positively. The FAS leadership needs to continue engaging and working closely with clubs, stakeholders and fans.
" We look forward to improvements in the standard of Singapore football and the performance of our national teams."
Mr Baey made the comments in response to queries from Nominated MP Ganesh Rajaram and Mr Faisal Manap from the Workers' Party on the current state of the local game.
Singapore are currently ranked 173rd out of 206 member nations affiliated to football's world governing body Fifa and the national team, under coach V. Sundram Moorthy, have not won since a 1-0 friendly victory over Cambodia in Nov 2016.
To nurture future generations of footballers, local S-League teams must start every game with three Under-23 players from this season.
Last month, the FAS also announced tough measures to combat smoking, including sacking repeat offenders.
"We are supportive of its (FAS') focus on the youth because our regional Games - the SEA Games and Asian Games' focus is on the U-23s," said Mr Baey.
"We believe that (the youth development plan) will bode well for Singapore football in the long term because that will create a very strong pipeline for the senior team and, hopefully, our ranking will rise, but that will take time.
"We will work closely and scrutinise FAS closely to make sure the KPIs are met." - WANG MENG MENG
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