Global FC rope in former Stags coach Akbar as technical consultant
Global FC will host Home United in the first leg of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup Asean Zone semi-finals tomorrow, and they will get some Singaporean help in their bid to make the final.
Former Tampines Rovers coach Akbar Nawas, who left the Stags earlier this year, has joined the Philippine side as a technical consultant.
"We just started out national (professional) league, and we can't pretend to be experts in club management or even in the technical aspects of the game," Global owner Dan Palami told The New Paper.
The Philippines just launched its professional league last month.
"I got to talk to Akbar over a dinner meeting where he shared his thoughts and I listened.
"I wanted a critique of my club from someone who has beaten us, and there are not may of those in the Philippines."
Global beat an Akbar-led Tampines 2-0 in the AFC Champions League preliminary stage in January. However, Akbar had masterminded the Stags' 5-2 aggregate win over Global at last year's RHB Singapore Cup quarter-finals.
Said Palami: "His ideas are useful to me personally - and to the club as well - and that's why I hired him as a technical consultant. His views and knowledge of Singapore clubs will be useful to us, too (when we play Home in the AFC Cup)."
Akbar is delighted to be given an opportunity to return to the game and at a club like Global.
"I'm honoured to have been recruited as a techincal consultant for the first team of Global. I would like to thank in particular the owner, Mr Dan Palami, for putting his trust in me to further develop and improve the first team," he said.
"Global are a top team with many technically sound players and I'm looking forward to my time here.
"It is a short-term commitment over here in Manila as of now and I am hopeful of a longer tenure if my services are required thereafter."
Global are not ruling out a long-term deal with Akbar, but they will decide on that only later.
Akbar had started work with the Global team over the weekend, in preparation for the game against Home at Manila's Rizal Memorial Stadium tomorrow.
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