SINGAPORE (6 Jan 2011) – Following what was felt as a disappointing year for the Lions, the FA of Singapore (FAS) have decided to disband the current national team with chief coach Radojko Avramovic to start afresh.
Zainudin Nordin, the president of the FAS said that ‘to save the current situation’, drastic steps had to be taken with the disbandment to be followed with a focus on getting new talents from the 14-years-old to 17-years-old bracket.
At the same time too, the FAS will also give further exposure to the back-up national squad.
He said that it will take some five years to rejuvenate the Singapore national team and warned the public that they will have to come up to the reality of not winning any silverware during that period.
“That is my message to all. We have to focus on the young players and give the opportunities to those players between the age of 14 to 17-years-old. And they will need time to develop where we feel that it will take around five years for them to reach a certain acceptable level,” said Zainudin to a local daily.
“We are looking at this redevelopment in the long term and not just for success in these few years.
“There will be some quarters who will not be happy with the plan but we will do our utmost for the SEA Games and also the World Cup qualifiers with the new players that we have.”
However Zainudin admitted that while the current squad will be disbanded, there’s every possibility that around four players might be called back to form the core of the new national side.
“When we redevelope the team in these few months, Raddy will assess each and every player as a new player,” he added.
“All the current players will be dropped and Raddy will form a new team. Each player selected will be based on merit.”
