Lessons Singapore football can learn from the country’s swim team

By Ignatius Koh

GRAPHIC: REYNARD ADRIANTO

Two of Singapore’s biggest sports have come under scrutiny in recent years. While the Republic’s swimmers have scaled to unprecedented heights in regional and international competitions, our footballers have been languishing in mediocrity.

As a football fan, it has been disappointing to see our national sport in the doldrums and I cannot help but compare the state of football here to the achievements of our current number one sport — swimming.

When Joseph Schooling touched the wall first in the 100 metre butterfly event at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, I rejoiced with fellow Singaporeans as a new national hero was born.

But Schooling’s success did not come easily. It was a culmination of 15 years of training and more than $1.35 million of investment from his parents that finally led him to win Singapore’s first Olympic gold medal.

With the Singapore Swimming Association setting up a $725,000 fund last December aimed at helping up-and-coming youth athletes in aquatic sports, the future looks bright for the swim team.

But these jubilant poolside celebrations are in stark contrast to Singapore football’s woes on and off the pitch.

It pained me to see a dejected Irfan Fandi, son of football legend Fandi Ahmad, burying his head in his hands after Singapore’s defeat to rivals Malaysia at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in August. It summed up the team’s current lack of calibre.

The battle against Malaysia effectively knocked Singapore out of the Games, with the team also losing to Myanmar.

That marked the sixth time in nine SEA Games in which Singapore failed to progress from the group stage.

Singapore football has been plagued by dwindling attendances, unattractive salaries, and more recently, a funding cut for the S.League, the country’s only professional football league.

I recently watched a Singapore Cup match between Albirex Niigata, the current league leaders, and Home United, a traditional powerhouse in Singapore football. It did not surprise me to see many empty seats, as this has been the case for years.

The funding cut — from $16 million to $8.5 million — by the Tote Board, which provides annual subsidies to the league, has also caused negativity to trickle down to the athletes. As a result, many players are becoming disillusioned with a football career.

Mr Philippe Aw, S.League Hougang United’s coach, told The Straits Times: “I won’t blame my players if they end up doing something like driving for Uber. At the end of the day, they have to put food on the table for their families.”

Furthermore, according to a report by The Straits Times in June, the Lions only won 10 out of 62 matches from 2014 to 2016 across the Under-14 to Under-23 age groups. Since national coach V. Sundramoorthy took over last May, the senior team has only won two out of 17 matches.

It is easy to lose hope, given the dire statistics.

But there is no shortage of football talent despite the pessimistic outlook. The rise of Irfan and his brother Ikhsan, aged 20 and 18 respectively, and national vice-captain Hariss Harun, now 26, is testament to that.

Irfan was rated as one of the 40 best young talents in world football by British newspaper The Guardian in 2014 while Hariss won the Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup in 2015.

What sets swimming and football apart, however, is not their abilities to unearth youth prospects — it is the difference in the help they have received in developing world class athletes.

Schooling, 22, was granted National Service (NS) deferment to train at the University of Texas at Austin in the build-up to his Olympic win. This led to an extension of his deferment until the Tokyo 2020 Games to help him surpass his feat.

Quah Zheng Wen, 21, another top young swimmer who also extended his NS deferment, moved to the United States to compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) with the University of California at Berkeley in January this year.

Barely two months later in March, he clinched second place in the men’s 200 yard butterfly at the NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships.

In contrast, Irfan and Ikhsan spent two promising years at Chilean top flight team Club Deportivo Universidad Católica from 2014 to 2016, but had to return home to complete their NS obligations.

I know that the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) could have supported the duo better — Irfan had to reject a four-year professional contract from Universidad Católica to serve NS.

“The next one year or so will be very tough for me in terms of my development because my NS training means I won’t get to play as much football as I do now,” Irfan told TODAY before his enlistment a year ago.

No Singapore footballer has been able to defer NS, which comes as a shame because they cannot train and develop as much as their counterparts across the world.

Singapore can definitely take a leaf out of South Korea’s book regarding conscription, where Olympic medallists and Asian Games gold medallists are exempted from military service.

A similar arrangement would suit our sporting needs well as it would provide more incentive to the male athletes as they can train without worrying about their NS call-up.

Without a doubt, I believe that the FAS can do more for our footballers. In fact, the reason why Irfan and Ikhsan could train in Chile was mostly down to their father Fandi, the head coach of Singapore’s youth teams, who worked to find suitable foreign clubs for them.

Granted, the FAS has supported players such as national goalkeeper Izwan Mahbud, 27, and midfielders Shawal Anuar and Gabriel Quak, both 26, by sending them to second-tier Japanese side Matsumoto Yamaga for trials over the last two years.

But these were only short two-week stints that only exposed them to a portion of the level they have to reach in order to improve — Japan are the second-ranked Asian team while Singapore are 31st.

Despite these shortcomings, I still see some hope for Singapore football — if the FAS show greater support for local players. 16-year-old national youth footballer Ben Davis signed a two-year scholarship with second-tier English side Fulham Football Club in July and has applied for NS deferment.

The FAS has agreed to support Davis’ deferment, which will be considered by Sport Singapore, the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY), and the Ministry of Defence. The organisations only need to look at swimmers Quah and Schooling to see how local football can benefit from an NS deferment.

At the same time, the FAS is preparing to present plans, which include allowing more young players regular game time, to the MCCY to show it can reinvigorate the ailing S.League.

If the younger players play more, they may see a future for themselves in the local football scene.

But it will be awhile before Singapore football can rise from its current ashes and reignite the fervent support of old. One thing is for sure, I will be eagerly waiting.