Start writing date: 7 July 2021, 3.10am
First Published: 4 November 2021, 3.20am
Last Updated: 26 December 2023, 5.59am

The purpose of this white paper is to outline my (Wyatt Mingji Lim’s) plans and vision for Singapore football, if ever I am put into a position of power to make the relevant changes as set out in this white paper. The end goal or the mission of the proposal within the white paper, is to drastically revolutionise the entire football ecosystem in Singapore – so that Singapore Football can stop the stagnation or even the perceived decline by the public, especially since Singapore left the Malaysian League system in 1994, in what most Singaporeans of that era claims to be the climax of Singapore Football.

The Key Points of the white paper will also serve as the manifesto in the event that Wyatt Mingji Lim would run for the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) presidency.

This white paper will be continuously updated and refined with the latest ideas/feedbacks.

 

Philosophy

I strongly believe in the core tenets that had made Singapore as a country, the success it is. Core tenets like,

• Democracy – will of the people ; accountability to the public
• Meritocracy – result orientated, the better you perform, the better the opportunities to uplift yourself to the next level
• Capitalism – the free market and impetus of the masses would drive improvements and development
• Foreign Direct Investment – it means not to be xenophobic and to embrace/mobilise the huge expat community in Singapore to contribute to Singapore Football
• Education – the people (human capital) is the greatest asset of Singapore, I believe the same applies to Singapore Football
• Multi-racial and United – regardless of race, language or religion. A football career should be as accessible and considered by all races, all socio-economic classes and all segment of the society.
• Union Movement – strong Government-Industry-Union tie up is one of the main reason for our country’s success. Unions directly shares their concerns and contribute to the shaping of policies; something that is largely missing within our football ecosystem.

I strongly believe that with FAS stop behaving like North Korea and more like Singapore – we can achieve massive progress and realise our full potential.

 

Key Points:

• Revamping FAS into a growth facilitator
• Membership system
• FAS executive committee & management
• FAS-led internal unions
• Funding & Expenditure
• Club Eligibility
• Club tier system (updated)
• FAS clubs
• Expat/Foreign-centric clubs
• League system revamp (updated)
• Cup Tournaments (updated)
• Women Football
• Transfer system & player contracts
• Non-Football-Only Professional Players (new! added 26 Dec 2023)
• Human capital development + post football career development
• Youth football system + Goal 2034
• National Service Issue
• National Team selection
• FAS vs National Team Relationship (new! added 26 Dec 2023)
• Freedom of Speech/Expression and Press Relations
• Facilities (FAS Stadiums / Training Centres)
• Futsal

 

Revamp FAS Into A Growth Facilitator

The must be new milestones, based on the number of players/clubs participating in the NFL, the amount of money invested into the local football via clubs + footballer salary (can be detected thru the players database), the number of professional/full time players, spectator numbers, media coverage, number of FAS members,

… and not just by whether we win medals or tournament. Winning is just the side effect of us doing everything else right.

 

Membership System

Underpinning the entire attempt to revolutionizing local football, is to revamp the entire membership system from the current system to one that can truly represent Singapore.

In the current system of membership, Ordinary Members and Associate Members are all clubs or companies. I personally find serious motivational and interests problem with this set up.

Firstly, FAS always claims to be representing Singapore, however, if you look at the members that have the voting power to influence the elections in FAS, they are not “Singapore”. They are individual clubs that each have their own motivations and interests to look after for. Can we say that the collective of all these clubs represents the will of all Singaporeans? I afraid not.

In fact, the fact that each club have one vote, had greatly threatened the SPL clubs as each non-SPL club were hoping to get a bigger chunk of the grant-pie; while the SPL clubs overwhelming monopolized most of the grants provided by FAS.

Singapore Premier League expenses was 13.3 million in 2020 and 12.6 million in 2021. In contrast, total expenditure of the rest of the leagues (Islandwide, NFL 1 and 2, Women’s league, FA Cup, etc) amounts to only 420k in 2020 and 183k in 2021 (how did FAS incur 178k for Islandwide league when nothing is happening in 2021 is anyone’s guess). SPL clubs basically benefitted at least 26 times more than everyone else.

How could the elected members be expected not to bend to the will of the bulk of the smaller clubs?
How is FAS supposed to justify the massive amount of grants given to just the few clubs as opposed what was given to the rest of the ecosystem?
Not to mention, SPL is a closed league with the rest of the clubs denied entry into the league at the whims of the FAS (since there is no promotion/relegation system).

Which means, SPL clubs will continue to get relatively obscene and unjustified amount of grants from SportSG (essentially), while the rest of the ecosystem struggles to ever climb out of “the hole of obscurity”. The entire carrot and stick (motivations) for clubs to do better is entirely non-existent and broken. This results (and will continue to be) in a never ending cycle of displeasure with the FAS by the smaller clubs, while FAS continues to just placate the smaller clubs and then proceeds to immediately dump all the money in SPL.

It is no wonder no corporations would want to invest in Singapore football – because its a monopoly (with FAS controlling everything) and closed system (like North Korea). There is literally no roadmap laid by FAS for clubs to grow into a professional club (not like that is a proper ecosystem for that now), and all FAS is expecting was big amount of money to parachute down to the FAS clubs and SPL. Like how SEA bought out Home United and somehow FAS claim credit for it… how is that supposed to be an achievement?

On top of that, any new clubs/associations that wish to become member, are also subjected to the approval of the FAS. It is entirely rigged.

So can all the NFL clubs band together to elect their own candidates and then make a conscious deliberate decision to kick Lion City Sailors out of the SPL. Can that be done? Sure! That’s what FAS did to Korean Super Reds when they wanted to turn local (despite the backing of their local Member of Parliament). There is literally NO accountability, because EVERY single club had to pander to the FAS (in hopes for more grants and support) while continue to languished in anonymity in the lower leagues that no media bother to cover.

This conundrum also means that it is NOT in FAS interests to expand the NFL to include more teams and make the League more assessible to more people and organisations that are willing to invest further into Singapore football. Its a self pawn situation – because having more smaller clubs means more danger to the SPL clubs which is the precious babies of FAS – making the FAS management “lives harder”. There is no win.

New Membership System
What I propose is to allow ANY Singaporeans to be able to sign up as a “Ordinary Member” (at a price). The membership fee should be at least 120 SGD per year (need to be renewed). For every full year the individual is a member within an FAS election cycle, the member will get one vote. If the individual is a member for a full FAS election cycle, it is likely that the individual will have 3-4 votes. This is to prevent member surge in an election year to skew election results, as well as to reward long time members with greater voting power as opposed to a new member. New members that had not fulfill a full year membership will NOT be able to vote in the FAS elections. Members that did not renew their membership in the FAS election year will however not be able to vote even if they already fulfilled at least 1 full year of membership (as the Extraordinary General Meeting would be opened to existing members).

Ordinary Members will receive members-only monthly newsletters/magazines as well as priority in ticket purchases (national teams matches, lion city cups, etc..).

I am also keen to add another category of membership, call the “VIP Members”. For VIP status, the membership fee per year is 2400 SGD (tentatively). This membership tier will give the individual 10 times the voting power and will be entitled to free football tickets, invite only events as well as VIP member only events.

The FAS memberships will be open to all Singaporeans and PR, including FAS staffs, football players, coaches – basically anyone and everyone.

For all the existing clubs / organisations, they will be reclassified as “Associate Members”. However their voting power will differ based the division they are in and their club tier level. (those not clubs with teams in the league system will get voting power similar to a Tier 4 Club in Tier 4 League)

Tier 1 League – 100 votes
Tier 2 League – 50 votes
Tier 3 League – 25 votes
Tier 4 League and below – 10 votes

Tier 1 Club – x5 voting multiplier
Tier 2 Club – x3 voting multiplier (FAS Clubs are not allowed to vote)
Tier 3 Club – x2 voting multiplier
Tier 4 Club – x1 voting multiplier

So a top division full professional club, like Lion City Sailors FC would have a voting power of 100 x 5 x 4 years = 2000 votes. While a newly promoted semi-pro club (Tier 3) playing in the top division while it had been a 2nd tier league team for the previous 3 years, would instead have only (100 x 2) + 3 (50 x 2) = 500 votes. A new amateur club joining the league system, would get only 10 votes.

The mathematics might seems a little complicated, however, this is by far, the most fair system, that pegs their voting power on the clubs’ achievements as well as investment into local football. It retains the clubs’ powerful voting clout during the FAS elections, but without being so huge that they could overwhelming Ordinary Members and VIP members.

Clubs not already playing in any FAS league or participating exclusively in FAS cup tournaments will not be eligible to vote, even if they had already registered for the upcoming season.

 

FAS Executive Committee & Management

I will revamp the FAS council/team/committee into a “Cabinet” style committee where every single council member will have to serve a role and be meaningful in their purpose. Think of it like Ministers in the Singapore’s Cabinet. I will not want anyone to be voted into the “governing body” of Singapore football that does not serve an active executive purpose. This is to make sure there is no dead weight and unnecessary politicking within the committee.

Furthermore, there should only be one President and two Deputy/Vice President, rather than the current weird 1 + 1 + 4 presidents set up. That’s just too many additional heads. If senior counsels are required, they should be appointed as Advisors, and should not hold executive roles nor have executive powers.

Each council member should be elected in the FAS elections to the exact area they would be interested to manage/oversee or they have a specific vision for that very department and is willing to gain support for those ideas and push them through to its fruition. This is to ensure that no one will be elected or reelected with false promises or without a vision/plan for the roles they are going for. Leadership of FAS should not be an avenue for glamour or status. The leadership positions have a real job, duty and responsibility to play. The FAS leadership needs to be answerable to the general public and people of Singapore, not just the supposed “stakeholders” only.

And because the council members or committee member are now active “executives”, I would expect their time to remunerated, by having a fixed basic salary – sufficient to cover the time and effort spend on fulfilling our vision for Singapore football.

I would envision the internal management to be reorganised to the following departments:

• Administration
  • Finance
  • Human Resource / Hiring
  • Human Capital Development / Training
  • Club Licensing & Tier Management
  • FAS Players Administration
  • Bursary & Scholarship
  • Procurement
  • Venue, Facilities & Equipment Bookings
  • Groundsmen and Equipment Management
• Football Development
  • Sports Science
  • Medicine, Physio & Player Wellness
  • Coaching Education/Development
  • FAS Centralised Training Centre
  • Fitness Excellence
  • Goalkeeping Excellence
  • Technique Excellence
  • Elite Scouting & Players Tracking/Shortlist Database
  • Youth Scouting & Players Tracking/Shortlist Database
• Referees
  • Referees Management
  • Referee Education/Development/Training
• National Teams
  • “A” National Team (men / women)
  • U23 National Team (men / women)
  • U22~U13 Youth National Teams (men / women)
  • Handicapped Football (Visual Impairments / Cerebral Palsy)
  • Competitions (Participation/Administration)
  • FAS Clubs (management)
• Youth Football
  • Schools Football Liaison
  • Football Academies Liaison
  • Competitions (Liaising & Support)
  • FAS Youth Leagues (Outsourced) (Liaising & Support)
• FAS Football Leagues (Management/Operations) (include women’s league)
• Competitions (Management/Operations)
  • Charity Shield
  • Singapore Cup
  • Lion City Cup
  • Merlion Cup
  • FA Cup
  • External Competitions (Liaising & Support)
• Database, Records & Archives
  • Transfer Market Database Management
  • Players Registry
  • Coaches Registry
  • Football Statistics
  • History Research, Recording & Archival
  • Football Museum
  • Membership Database Management
• Media & Communications
  • Media Relationship Management
  • Press Release / Corporate Communications
  • Official Websites Management & Update
  • Football Journalism Websites/Publications Team
  • Reporters/Journalists Team
  • Marketing & Branding
• Membership
  • FAS Members Relations
  • Members Management
  • Members Outreach / Benefits

I envision that there will be 2 types of “meeting”, “General Meetings” and “Exco Meetings”.

General Meetings will be participated by Exco, head of departments and Union Ambassadors. Its meant to be a macro meeting to raise issues and set directions – as well as to make big decisions and sought feedbacks for major issues. Exco meetings on the other hand are strategic meetings attended only by the Exco + General-Secretary; you can look at like as if it’s a cabinet meeting (ministerial meetings) – this is meant to make decisions based on the feedbacks/discussions in General Meetings as well as other operational/strategic matters. Head of departments may or may not be invited to General Meetings (as you can view head of departments more like Perm-Secs for each ministry). For both type of meetings, Advisors are only invited to attend on invitation only.

The separation between Exco and the executives (FAS staffs) ensures that difficult decisions can always be made without conflict of interests (as no one will make their own lives more difficult); that FAS members’ interest and concerns will be addressed and the mandate given to be honored – thus for the betterment of Singapore football.

 

FAS-led Internal Unions

I am a strong believer in the contribution of Singapore Union Movement in the success of the Singapore story. NTUC brings together workers, companies and government, to gain common ground, to understand what is needed to push ourselves to the next stage and to solve problems amicably before it boils over.

In the same spirit, I would form the following FAS Unions that will be supported and partially funded by FAS.

• Referees Union/Group (individuals)
• Amateur Players Union/Group (individuals)
• Semi-Pro / Professional Players Union/Group (individuals)
• Grassroots Coaches Union/Group (individuals)
• Professional Coaches Union/Group (individuals)
• FAS Ordinary Members Group (individuals)*
• FAS VIP Members Group (individuals)*
• Football Media’s Union/Group (organisation/companies)
• Football Operators Union/Group (organisation/companies)

In each FAS Union, the members of each group will be entitled to vote for their Ambassador during the FAS elections (or they can nominate themselves as the Representative/Ambassador ). The Ambassadors of each group will be part of the committee and will be invited to attend General Meetings, so that they can provide the feedback, opinions and advise on behalf of their represented groups. FAS will hold annual union elections for groupings/unions to elect or retain their Ambassadors (this will ensure adequate representation and the chance to change their Ambassador if they think the Ambassador had not been effective in his/her role).

The Ambassadors can also table agenda for the General Meetings to address issues raised by it’s members, directly at the General Meeting, we can discuss and come out with either a good answer or to create a solution to address the issues. Their standing will be similar to council members.

Union election for their ambassadors will be held with FAS administrative support & oversight (to ensure the election is fair and transparent to all members)

* FAS Members group ambassadors will be there to represent membership-related issues

 

Funding & Expenditure

Currently FAS get most of it’s funding primarily from SportSG (previously directly from Singapore Pools/Tote Board).

2020 revenue
SportSG Grant: 18.1 million
Sponsorship: 1.13 million
Subsidies (FIFA, AFC, AFF, Job Support Scheme): 3.2 million

2021 revenue
SportSG Grant: 15.5 million
Sponsorship: 0.62 million
Subsidies (FIFA, AFC, AFF, Job Support Scheme): 3.2 million

Expenses basically matches almost the entire revenue amount (curiously).

Personally I think FAS should follow the good practise as per done at the Town Councils (or nationally), where a portion of the amount of revenue SHOULD be saved and invested, for rainy days or for long haul big spending tickets / additional operating reserves / sinking fund. The percentage to be set aside for saving/investment will be determined later (probably by someone who is better at investment stuff), I’m assuming its probably around 10%-25% of the revenue that is not from SportSG or Subsidies, to ensure accountability to the higher authorities that their money are spent directly into the ecosystem. The likely source of the revenue to contribute to such reserves or sinking funds that can be used for investment purpose will be from Membership income, Sponsorships, Merchandising and other form of income.

In term of salary, I also find that the income gap between players and FAS staffs seemed to be massive. 2.5 million dollars out of the 20 million dollars revenue in 2021 goes to “Group” salaries and bonuses, of which, 1 million of it is for “key management personnel”. I think 10% of the total revenue spending purely on FAS staffs isn’t exactly an issue, but 5% of the total revenue goes to key management personnel’s salary (not sure who are these people and how many of them) does sounds exorbitant. This amount for key management personnel is equivalent to paying 10 individuals at 100k annual salary (8.3k per month). Maybe its fair or maybe I do not know better. I won’t be able to tell unless I’m able to know the actual details.

In my opinion, key management personnel salary should be pegged or have a relationship with the amount of revenue FAS can bring in, excluding grants and subsidies. While exco, as per indicated in the FAS Executive Committee & Management section, would be paid a nominal sum, perhaps pegged to membership numbers/income, with a fixed cap that should not exceed a certain amount or percentage, as exco are there by the mandate of the members, their salary should be paid purely by membership fees; and not from any other sources of revenue in FAS.

With the revamp of the league systems as well as other aspect detailed in this white paper, I strongly believe FAS will be able to attract more sponsorships, media attention as well as new sources of income – that FAS can then reinvest back into the football ecosystem and grow it even bigger and better.

 

Club Eligibility

I intend to expand the eligibility to allow companies (Pte Ltd) to participate in the league without the need to be a registered association or society.

I believe that the association/society requirement is a barrier to entry, and I think it does not serve much purpose in the context of football in general. It feels like an unnecessary bureaucracy and it revamped. I believe, by allowing Pte Ltds to send teams to participate in the league system, it will encourage a lot more investment into Singapore football in general.

Singapore is one of the richest country in the world (per capita) and with one of the highest concentration of multinational corporations and large corporations. The amount of investments and sponsorship we are getting into local football today is pathetic. We should be able to do better.

Under this revamp, I believe companies would view football clubs as worthy investments. This liberalisation will allow corporations to build football clubs and it’s brand over the long term. With their resources, manpower, capabilities and marketing prowess, they could bring a totally different paradigm into local football. Not to mention, should they one day find a worthy buyer, they could sell the football club and make a profit or even recoup some or all of their investments – enabling football clubs to maintain a legacy and live on for as long as possible.

Football clubs backed by corporation could be on the corporation’s balance sheet, allowing such clubs to have a stronger financial backing to ensure they do not fall in the financial troubles like so many past Sleague clubs/associations had gone through. Business-mindedness and business wisdom will ensure that such football clubs will always be on proper financial footings, and would unlikely over extend itself.

Of course, the corporate backed football clubs will also be subjected to the Club Tier system and are also allowed to apply for FAS assistances like all other clubs.

 

Club Tier System

In my vision the clubs will be break down into different tiers, that denotes their level of professionalism/maturity and organisational readiness as a football club.

Tier 1: Professional Clubs
Tier 2: Assisted Professional Clubs | FAS Clubs
Tier 3: Semi-Professional Clubs
Tier 4: Amateur Clubs

Tier 1: Professional Clubs
In Tier 1, these are the clubs that are fully professional, and independent from FAS. They do not receive nor require assistance in funding from the FAS, they are fully funded by their owner(s) or by their business model and are entitled to 100% of the FAS tournament awards/prizes. Signed at least 18 professional players (full time players). Clubs of this tier is entitled to playing at their own home ground, collect/manage their own ticketing system and entitled to 100% of their ticketing revenue. Foreign clubs are eligible for this tier. Local clubs must be able to attain the AFC Club License.

Professional Clubs are eligible to have a reserve team fielded in the next highest league, although the reserve team will be subjected to relegation, but it cannot promote to the same division as the main team. If the main team relegates, the reserve team will also relegate, regardless of league position. The reserve team will also be eligible for prize money/awards according to the Tier the reserve team is in.

Tier 2: Assisted Professional Clubs | FAS Clubs
In Tier 2, these are the clubs that are in transition from Semi-Pro to Full Pro (or they can just stay in this tier if thats what they are comfortable with). Assisted Pro Clubs are clubs that will be full professional clubs on paper, but various aspect of the club management are delegated to FAS to manage for the club. For example, a just promoted Semi-Pro club to the top division, wanting to be qualified for AFC Cup, may not have all everything needed to be graded as a Full Professional Club, thus FAS is here to help build up the missing parts to guide them on the road to Full Professional status.

According to the AFC Club Licensing requirement, there are criteria in five different segments (Sporting, Infrastructure, Personnel/Administration, Legal and Financial) that are listed as Category A (must fulfill), Category B (must fulfil, but may still qualify for AFC Club competitions without) and Category C. The aim of the Assisted Professional Club tier is to ensure that the club will be able to fulfill all both Category A & B requirements, in order for the club to be AFC Club Licensing qualified.

The FAS assistance may work like this: Perhaps the club is lacking funding to sign some full time players, thus requiring FAS to step in to help fund this part, or perhaps the club do not have the facilities or systems in order to manage the finance of the club professionally and independently, thus FAS will take over this aspect of the club. So in essence, all the professional clubs today, with exception of Lion City Sailors, are Assisted Professional Clubs, as none of them would be able to operate without FAS funding.

So a club can get FAS to assist in funding some of the players, and do not require FAS to manage the branding/marketing or operational aspect of the club. This scheme would be flexible enough should a club choose to just focus on the footballing aspect and leave the branding/marketing side of the things to the FAS to decide/manage for them. The catch however is, while the club can select and submit which coach/player they are interested to FAS for signing request (only local players/coaches are eligible); other matters like vendors for marketing or staffing for other operational aspect are selected and decided by FAS – and the clubs will not have decision power of this.

To ensure accountability and transparency of all these money, all the payment/financing provided by FAS to these Assisted Pro Clubs will not go through the clubs. Below are the “optional” items that could be “taken over” by FAS to manage and funded. (subject to changes)

• Signing of Full Time Players using FAS Funding: the contract is negotiated and signed with FAS, and not with the club | salary will be dispense directly from FAS to the player.
• Signing of Full Time Coaches using FAS Funding: the contract is negotiated and signed with FAS, and not with the club | salary will be dispense directly from FAS to the coach.
• Branding/Marketing: Handled & paid by FAS, FAS dictates the marketing/branding
• Operations: Handled & paid by FAS, FAS dictates the marketing/branding

This “constraints” will encourage clubs to fund as many of the player contracts themselves and maintain control over other operational aspect of the club on their own as much as possible – so that FAS involvements/interference can be kept to the minimum. Thus a club decides to make use of the assistance, the club management would also essentially lose control of certain aspect of the club  or lose control over contract negotiations with players/coach – should they decide not to fund and manage it themselves. This would also ensure that no clubs can game the system or mismanage the money – since no money will go into the hands of the club – but instead directly to the hired footballer, staff or vendor.

This I believe will also help to train the clubs to focus more their branding/marketing, to build their fan base with the funding they can garner from sponsorships and other revenue, rather than the current situation where the clubs pre-allocated nearly the entire annual FAS funding to player contracts every season, and then use what is left over to do marketing/branding. However, in this scheme/program for Assisted-Professional Clubs, FAS will get a first cut of the awards/prizes from FAS tournaments to reimburse the money spent by FAS, before the rest of the amount is pass over to the club. Thus it is not entirely “free money” nor should the club “abuse” the system by “overspending” through FAS, but can be viewed more like an advanced payment or a loan. Thus it is in the clubs’ interest to actually turn full professional should they want to have more control. FAS will absorb the cost should the prize money is insufficient to cover the full cost (which is why it’s still considered a grant or an financial assistance – the risk is absorb by FAS).

I can imagine there would need to be a spending cap on this, perhaps the amount of funding FAS is assisting with, cannot be more than 50% of the financial commitment/overhead the club is already spending on the current players and staffing. This is to ensure fairness to the other clubs in the league as well as to conserve funding so that there is sufficient finances to go around the league system.

Assisted-Professional Clubs are also eligible to have a reserve team fielded in the next highest league, although the reserve team will be subjected to relegation, and it cannot promote to the same division as the main team. If the main team relegates, the reserve team will also relegate, regardless of league position. On the upside, the reserve team will also be eligible for prize money/awards according to the Tier the reserve team is in (if it have at least 18 full time players in the reserve, thats Tier 1/2 ;  if its have less than that but at least 3 full timers, Tier 3; if its all part timers or unpaid players, Tier 4).

Tier 3: Semi-Professional Clubs
Semi-Professional Clubs are essentially any clubs that signed at least 3 full-time players at their own expense. This would indicate the intention and ambition for the club to grow further and perform more competitively in the league.

Like Assisted-Professional Clubs, Semi-Professional Clubs would also be entitled to FAS Semi-Pro Club Assistance to help them sign players and coaches. However, for Semi-Professional Clubs,  FAS will fund full-time player (from 4th full-time players onwards) or part-time/full-time coach signings upon request. The amount of funding FAS is assisting with, cannot be more than 50% of the financial commitment/overhead the club is already spending on the current players and staffing and only eligible for local players and coaches. However, similar to the Assisted-Professional Clubs, Semi-Professional Clubs’ prizes/awards will first goes to reimbursing the money spent in the FAS assistance for the season. FAS will absorb the cost if the prize money is insufficient to cover the full cost.

Clubs will need to register with FAS to signal their transition to this Tier and would have to commit to maintaining at least 3 full time players at all times. Failure to maintain 3 full time players till the end of the season will result in the downgrading of tier from Tier 3 to Tier 4 and will lose rights to FAS Semi-Pro Club Assistance.

However the drawback for Semi-Professional Clubs not being full professional clubs is that they will only receive 50% of the total prize money/award for their finish in league or cups, or the percentage of the registered squad that are given full time contracts whichever percentage is higher, and no more than 80%. This is ensure that clubs will not try to stay semi-professional to “earn money” and thus short-changing the part time footballers of their efforts to compete or even out perform professional players, especially at the first division where the prize money is significant.

Semi-Professional Clubs do not have automatic spots for their reserve teams, their reserve teams will have to be registered as a separate team in order to play in the FAS league system. The reserve team will have its own Tier, although it is conceivable that the reserve is likely to be considered an Amateur Club.

Tier 4: Amateur Clubs
Amateur Clubs are clubs that have less than 3 full-time players in their squad. This would represent the entry level tier for any club that enters the FAS league system.

Clubs at this tier will not be eligible for any form of financial assistance. However management, coaches and players of the clubs will still be eligible for relevant FAS courses to update/upgrade the human capital of the club.

Amateur Clubs will also have drawback on prize money/award, eligible for only 10% of the total.

Tertiary education institutes, like ITE, Universities, Polytechnics school teams will be under this Tier (unless they are forming alumni teams that can go semi-pro or full pro). And FAS should encourage tertiary school teams to join the FAS league system, in order to expose the players to higher level of competitive football – and also allow them to be scouted for a future career in professional football.

 

FAS Clubs

In the transitional period between now and the day where we have a vibrant football ecosystem filled with Professional Clubs, there will be a need for direct intervention from FAS to ensure that qualified or high potential footballers would be able to play high level / professional football week in week out. This is where the FAS clubs come in.

FAS Clubs are fully funded and managed/owned by FAS. These clubs will be AFC Club Licensed. These clubs will be expected to be run at a high level, and to be competitive in the top league. These clubs’ purpose is to ensure that good players or players with high potential will have a club to play in – you can look at it like a safety net of sort, for our local footballers. The FAS club teams will be 100% local and will be open to selling the players to any clubs (they will have to buy out the contract via a transfer fee). Players recruited for FAS club will be high potential players scouted from the lower league or existing top league players that are without a club. Players who do not perform to the standard expected of a professional football may still be dropped or the contract not renewed.

FAS Clubs can be for sale so that it can immediately be converted into an independent full Professional Club, like in the case where Home United is taken over and reborn as Lion City Sailors. The funding from the sale will be reinvested into local football.

The threshold for the review of the FAS Club program would be when the top division are filled with Professional Clubs. I would expect that situation to be when we have at least 12 Professional Clubs (Tier 1 clubs) and that the FAS Clubs are struggling to stay in the top division or are relegated. From that moment on, FAS clubs may continue to exist as 1st-2nd division clubs that will keep all the non-FAS clubs on their toes, while continue to act as a safety net or stepping stone for high potential players – it could be a case then that FAS club will act more like a U23 program with most of the players being high potential young players, supported by veteran players, which can become mentors to these young players.

 

Expat/Foreign-Centric Clubs

Personally I have nothing against Foreign clubs, like Sporting Afrique, Korean Super Reds, Albirex Singapore – in fact, I find that they had brought more colors and intrigue into the S-League in the past – my only issue was almost all of them are short-lived.

Singapore is a very international city/country. We have a huge expat population that allows clubs like Albirex Niigata Singapre or Etoile FC to make “sense”. In the amateur scene, COSMO league is arguably the highest quality/standard amateur football league in Singapore. From my own experience/observation, the players takes the league and competition way more seriously than I have seen in even the SPL/Sleague. Many of these expats that took part in the COSMO league are former youth players from football academies in Europe, as such, the quality of competition is immense. I even remember seeing friendly results of COSMO league teams trashing our NFL 1 teams in the past; or it can be observed from many of the smaller sided tournaments that usually ends with a COSMO league team champion.

In my opinion, it would be an utter waste of opportunity if we do not give our local boys a chance to cross sword with the international residents that are staying here in Singapore. Football is a sporting competition, results is all that matters – if our semi-professional or even professional teams cannot handle part-timers or amateur expat teams, then it would have been a good reality check for our players and teams. As such, I highly support having full foreign or foreign-local-mixed teams to be playing in the league season, be it full professional, semi-professional or amateur. This could actually be a boon for Singapore football development that most other countries do not have the benefit of.

Many of the clubs may have different objectives in participating in the league system, and not everyone of them may have the intention to turn pro. Some probably just wanted to have a highly competitive avenue to challenge their players, as such may be willing to have a mixed team between foreign and local players; or even a full foreign team of expats to enjoy the thrill of playing in an official league system. For some, it could be an opportunity to be scouted and turn full professional footballer, perhaps a dream that they have left behind years ago. Others, might even decide to naturalise and play for Singapore, after deciding to settle down in Singapore.

However, the drawback of foreign / mixed clubs will that, they cannot represent Singapore in AFF or AFC international tournaments, as they will not be qualified under the current rules, and that they will not be provided funding from FAS or Singapore government, as they are considered foreign entities and will not be qualified for them. However any assistance or scholarship programs will still be open to the locals players in these clubs.

 

League System Revamp

One of the major issue with the current Singapore football ecosystem is that it is too small and too exclusive – and thus we can see the result of this poor league system translated on our national team as we constantly underperform despite our tremendous financial investment into football every year.

The weakness or broken “adult” football ecosystem is the main reason why no amount of investment into youth development would be enough when the incentive to make football a plausible career option is not there. In Unleash The Roar (aka Goal 2034), the plan is to get 3000 players in each cohort to play regularly – lets focus just on boys, thats 2000 boys per year.
Lets say based on the prime football age is between 18 – 33 years old is 15 years. And assuming 10% of the 2000 boys per year decides to continue doing competitive football in hopes to make it career or doing it professionally – thats 200 players per age group. 15 years would be 3000 active competitive players at any one time.

Assuming each team have a squad of 25 players, 3000 players would require 120 teams. Do we have 120 teams today, or in the near future? Unfortunately, no. We have 8 + 10 + 10 = 28 teams (excluding Islandwide division which… isn’t really a division at all).

120 teams would mean we would need 6 divisions of 20 teams each. This is the number we need to be mindful of, if Goal2034/Unleash The Roar is to “bear true fruit”. In my plan/concept below, there is places for 100 teams without counting the “non-league” Islandwide League – we could very bring us pretty close to the 120 teams marked that could support the “UTR/Goal2034” plan.

The Overview of the Revamped League System is as such:

Singapore Super League
– 16 teams (with flexibility of expanding to 20 teams)
– 2 rounds
– 3 relegation spot
– Estimated Prize Pool: 15 million SGD (subjected to changes)

The Championship (or Singapore Premier League)
– >24 teams | 1 round
– First time Reserve Teams of Professional Clubs auto qualify
– 2 auto promotion spot, 4 relegation spot
– 3rd~6th places to have playoff for the 3rd promotion spot
– Estimated Prize Pool: 6 million SGD

Division 1
– >20 teams | 1 round
– 4 promotion spot, 4 relegation spot
– Estimated Prize Pool: 2 million SGD

Division 2 (optional)
– >20 teams | 1 round
– 4 promotion spot, 4 relegation spot
– Estimated Prize Pool: 0.5 million SGD

Division 3 (optional)
– >20 teams | 1 round
– 4 promotion spot, 4 relegation spot
– Estimated Prize Pool: 0.2 million SGD

Islandwide League 
– x number of teams | 1 round
– 4 promotion spots
– Estimated Prize Pool (only for promoted teams): 16,000 SGD

– Reserve teams for Professional and Assisted Professional Teams will auto qualify for the division below their First/Main Team, as a result, the division below will get an additional team, but also will have an additional relegation spot, so that it will reset back to the default number of teams the subsequent season.
– If there are more than 20 teams registering in the Islandwide League, they will all be automatically form the Division 2… then Division 3 (as I think we currently may not have enough teams to form Division 2 and 3). Division 3 will be the last of the main FAS League System. After formation of Division 3, Islandwide League will perform more of a “qualification / non-league” role for teams to fight for the rights to enter Division 3.
– 4 relegation spot rather than just 3’s purpose is to ensure teams can rapidly move up and down the league system, to quickly match them with the division the team’s standard is at.
– All matches will be played at FAS stadiums, with exception of Professional Clubs whom can have their own home stadiums.
– In the transition from the current model to the revamped league model, the top 8 teams from NFL1 will be promoted to join the SPL clubs to form the Super League (it will be rebranded to Super League only in the subsequent season). The rest of the clubs and the lower division + any other clubs that would like to participate in the new format, will form the Division 1. The Championship division with those significant prize rewards will only kick off in the subsequent season as we want to give clubs time to settle in, into the new format as well as to find additional funds, resources and personnel to ensure it’s success.

The Prize Pool for Each Division

Pos	Super League	Championship	Division 1	Division 2	Division 3	IWL
1	1,800,000	600,000	250,000	50,000	25,000	4,000
2	1,600,000	500,000	200,000	42,000	20,000	4,000
3	1,500,000	365,000	180,000	40,000	18,000	4,000
4	1,400,000	360,000	160,000	38,000	16,000	4,000
5	1,300,000	355,000	120,000	29,000	13,000
6	1,200,000	350,000	115,000	28,000	12,500
7	1,100,000	280,000	110,000	27,000	12,000
8	1,000,000	270,000	105,000	26,000	11,500
9	900,000	260,000	100,000	25,000	11,000
10	800,000	250,000	95,000	24,000	10,500
11	700,000	240,000	90,000	23,000	10,000
12	600,000	230,000	85,000	22,000	9,000
13	500,000	220,000	80,000	21,000	8,000
14	220,000	210,000	75,000	20,000	6,500
15	200,000	200,000	70,000	19,000	5,000
16	180,000	190,000	65,000	18,000	4,000
17		180,000	28,000	14,000	2,000
18		170,000	26,000	12,500	2,000
19		160,000	24,000	11,500	2,000
20		150,000	22,000	10,000	2,000
21		130,000
22		120,000
23		110,000
24		100,000
Total	15,000,000	6,000,000	2,000,000	500,000	200,000	16,000

– It is important to note that the prize money noted for each league position finishing will be lesser if the club is not Tier 1 or Tier 2 clubs. Tier 3 clubs will get 50% of the prize money while Tier 4 clubs will only get 10%. More on the Club Tier System in the next section.

Although it might sounds bad “just 10%”, but an amateur club winning the revamped Division 1 (3rd tier league), getting 25,000 dollars (10% of 250,000) is way more than what current NFL 1 clubs are getting. For context, Warwick Knights FC received 15,000 dollars for the 2019 NFL Division 1 championship (2nd tier league), Project Vaults Oxley SC received 7,500 for their 2019 Division 2 championship (3rd tier league).

So you can see that, the aim is to invest a lot more into the rest of the league ecosystem, with the ramping up of prize money tied to league positions in giving the teams the impetus to fight as hard as they can, and to build an ever stronger team. Even so, the prize money is designed so that clubs do not depend on just the league prize money to fund the entire club, but it would still be sufficient to give the club a foundation to build on – to get more fans, to get sponsors, build a brand, build a following – have a purpose.

Should a club is unable to get sponsorship/funding to keep itself as a Professional Club, then it is only right for the club to downgrade to a Tier 2 (Assisted Pro) or a Tier 3 club (Semi-Pro). FAS should not be responsible in giving sufficient grants to a club just to artificially keep a club “professional”; as it would be a huge disservice to the rest of the football community as the money can be better spent elsewhere to build a stronger foundation for the entire football ecosystem. On the flipside, there is no stopping any clubs going full professional right from the outset in the Islandwide League, which also mean

And if the entire league system at any point of time is unable to maintain any Professional Clubs, then it is only right for the league to become a majority Semi-Pro club league. The economics must make sense.

Match Schedules
I expect league matches in the top 4 tiers to be played on Friday, Saturday and Sundays.

Matches to be played:
Super League – 8 matches per round
Championship – 12 matches per round
Division 1 – 10 matches per round
Division 2 – 10 matches per round

Fridays: 2 Super League + 2 Championship matches playing in the evening (8.00pm kick off) across 4 venues
Saturday:  10am (4 x Div2 matches), 1pm (2 x Div2 + 2 x Div1 matches), 3pm (4 x Div1 matches), 5pm (4 x Championship matches), 8.00pm (4 x Super League matches) across 4 venues
Sunday:  10am (4 x Div2 matches), 1pm (2 x Div2 + 2 x Div1 matches), 3pm (4 x Div1 matches), 5pm (4 x Championship matches), 8.00pm (2 x Super League + 2 x Championship matches) across 4 venues

I think spectators could possibly watch 4 matches with one ticket, while they will need top up to watch the Super League match as well. Or spectators could buy just the Super League match only ticket (which would probably only slightly cheaper; to encourage spectators to watch the earlier matches). But for fixtures of Tier 1 Clubs with their own stadiums, there may be no matches played on the same field before their matches as a result.

As mention in the venue strategy for FAS Stadiums, the carnival-like environment and set up should make it palatable for spectators/visitors to stay long hours at the venue. If its just watch football only, then yeah, its a little dry for spectators.

 

Cup Tournaments

I would propose a few changes to the FAS cup tournaments.

Singapore Cup, will no longer a closed football tournament (with invited foreign teams). But instead, I would like to open up Singapore Cup into an open tournament (up to 400 non league teams can join) that anyone in Singapore can form a team to join. Early rounds will be played by non-league teams (right from preseason period), then lower tier FAS league teams will enter the rounds (at the start of the season), the higher tier FAS league teams (early season), then finally the top tier teams will enter the rounds (mid season). You can think of it like the English FA Cup that starts off from the non-league teams. It will be one match knock out format. There will be no home and away games.

This is to encourage mass participation across all of Singapore. Any teams in Singapore, participating in private leagues could join the Singapore Cup and see how far they can go. If they do well, they could even meet NFL teams or even Premier League/Super League teams!

There should be a one time participation fees required from all participating teams (nominal), and prize money will be available from any teams that can arrive at the round of 32, with more prize for each round they are able to progress, with the champion getting the biggest pie of the prize money.

1st Round (400 teams): No prize for winning
2nd Round (200 teams): 100 SGD/winner (prize pool: 10000 SGD)
3rd Round (100 + 60 teams): 200 SGD/winner (prize pool: 16000 SGD) (60 x NFL teams join here)
4th Round (80 teams): 500 SGD/winner (prize pool: 20000 SGD)
5th Round (40 + 24 teams): 1000 SGD/winner (prize pool: 32000 SGD) (24 x Championship teams join here)
6th Round (32 teams): 2000 SGD/winner (prize pool: 32000 SGD)
7th Round (16 + 16 teams): 4000 SGD/winner (prize pool: 64000 SGD) (16 x Super League teams join here) (ticketed and telecast matches)
8th Round (16 teams): 8000 SGD/winner (prize pool: 64000 SGD)
Quarter Finals (8 teams): 8000 SGD/winner (prize pool: 32000 SGD)
Semi Finals (4 teams): 16000 SGD per team that win their match (prize pool: 32000 SGD)
Finals (2 teams): 32000 SGD for champion, runner up no money  (prize pool: 32000 SGD)
TOTAL PRIZE POOL 334000
(Each team pay 200 SGD to participate, including the FAS League teams whom will enter the tournament later)
(FAS to receive 100,000 SGD in registration fee to facilitate the mass participation)

A champion team from the Super League could potentially earn 68k from their participation in the Singapore Cup, while in an unlikely scenario that a non-league team win the Singapore Cup, they can earn up to 71.8k in a champions run. For the Singapore Cup, there will be no “discounts” from the prize money won by Tier 3 or 4 clubs.

For viability study, total expenses for Singapore Cup in 2019 is just over 200k. The above tournament is a lot bigger, expense after registration fee revenue for prize award alone is 234k (not including other operating/management expense). But I believe the tournament should have enough media and public interest to get sponsors along with broadcast rights money.

And by contrast, the FA Cup or League Cup (undecided with the name), will be participated only by FAS league teams (minus Islandwide League). This cup tournament will however feature a group stage (of up to 5 teams/group), with each group consist of at least 1 team from each division. The knock out stage will be one match knock out format. Similarly, this will ensure inclusiveness, and helps with the branding and marketing of the lower league teams – to help them build fans as well as to ensure there is more than enough drama for the media to write about.

There is no point for every tournament to be purely participated by only the top tier clubs; they are already playing each other often enough in the league. Lets bring some variety and drama into the cup tournaments. Both revamped tournaments will be played throughout the season (mid-week matches). More matches = more revenue for the teams and FAS.

FA Cup will likely play in the first half of the season with the Final to be played likely at the mid season point; as the league teams will start to appear in the Singapore Cup by around the mid-season point. Thus the top teams have a full fixtures all season round.

Lion City Cup (U16 tournament) should be organised bi-yearly at minimum, with the two cup tournaments held on alternate years of each other. It should not be cancelled just because of lack of sponsors, and should be held annually if possible for consistent youth development.

Merlion Cup (U18 tournament) will be revamped into a U18 tournament, as the highest/oldest level FAS sanctioned youth football tournament, as after 18 years old, players should start to go pro or play in the FAS leagues. Similar to the Lion City Cup, it will be participated by the U18 and U17 national team against invited teams. This should also be held annually if possible as the final stage for youth players in the national set up.

 

Women Football

The women football system will parallel those of the men’s football. Same awards, same privileges, same funding. Basically, equality. For clubs that participates in both men and women football, they will have voting rights from both men and women team, thus increasing their voting power, or even additional income if the clubs know how to manage and monetise their brand.

Because of this equality between the system designs of men and women football, I believe there will be a strong interest and motivation for all the clubs to form their own female teams, in order to get more voting power. The competition for players would likely to be fierce, resulting in increased scouting and football development for female football – massively accelerating the growth of female football in Singapore.

Tentatively, matches could be played in the exact same stadiums as the men, but probably on week days, unless we can get at least 2 more FAS Stadiums built up or we utilize SportSG stadiums.

For cup tournaments, there could be a women’s version of the Singapore Cup and the FA/League Cup, but prize money might be lesser with lesser participations.

 

Transfer System & Player Contracts

The lack of transfers is a sign of a weak football league ecosystem. Because the lack of transfer signifies the lack of long term contracts, which illustrate the lack of confidence by the football clubs in maintaining a long term plan/strategy as well as a lack of strong finance/revenue stream. The lack of transfer also presents the lack of ambition by teams to acquire the best players they can afford that were already signed up with another team. In a strong football league ecosystem, high performing football players in the lower leagues are often recruited by higher tier teams via transfer fee, which in term strengthens the financial situation of the lower team as well as making it a viable strategy to continue to develop young talents.

Teams that have a long term plan and strategy offers multi-year long term contracts to make sure there are a certain level of certainty, consistency and stability within the team. So the lack-of long term contracts basically tells of the poor health of the professional football scene in Singapore as well as confirm that a career in football is extremely risky and insecure.

So while, it is not in my philosophy that the FAS should be decreeing anything in regards to player contracts decisions by the individual teams/clubs, the FAS should however facilitate an easy to use transfer market system.

So the vision is to have an easy to use transfer market database, probably not unlike those you see in the Football Manager series games, where all the players that are transfer listed, will be listed. Players without a club (free agents) can also list themselves onto the database. On top of their names, photos, standard personal information like age and birthday; basic statistics like their playing history (previous clubs), games played, match stats should be visible. For free agents, they should be able to also list their preferences like expected salary, bonus, etc… if they want. And if possible, all the existing contracts of players should be visible and transparent to everyone (as long as there is no confidentiality agreement to keep the contract details under wrap between the club and players) – as all the contract and transfer information should be submitted to FAS for tracking purpose. I would however expect the contract length be listed regardless of the confidentiality agreement. Clubs can also list amount to trigger a release clause for their players – which I believe can lead to more transfers  The transfer fees of completed deals will also be listed – unless it is also under confidentiality agreement.

FAS will also protect the rights of players to talk to other clubs for employment after the end of their current contract, should their contract is less than 1 year in length. Clubs should have no rights in blocking players from the ability to secure their future / work security for the subsequent season. This would also encourage clubs to offer longer contracts than 1 year in length or to put players in the transfer list before their contract end. The system in which players had to wait until the end of the season to negotiate their contract or to know whether they will be kept by the club must be eliminated. As long as a player’s contract is within a year, their status showing their contract is ending soon will appear in the database, so any clubs that are interested or are planning for the next season will be able to approach the player for a precontract – securing their future employment.

This database system ensures players do not panic over the uncertain playing future about where they will be playing the following season, allowing players to demand clubs to list them on the transfer market should the clubs cannot commit to their future – which would in turn, encourage multi-year contracts to be the norm without FAS enforcing/decreeing it. On top of that, the system will allow players to find a club easier, and the clubs to matchmake with a suitable player with more ease. Roster planning for the future would be easier for the clubs and players can focus on football. The transparent nature of the system will allow players to keep track of the remunerations other players of their (perceived) calibre is getting, ensuring that they will not be shortchanged and can negotiate for a more appropriate salary package.

The “FAS football transfer market” system will only be accessible to FAS league teams, media outlets (upon application and approval) as well as FAS members – all with differing level of features.

On top of the transfer features, this also will allow FAS to be able to track player movements between clubs, to ensure that the players do not register for more than 1 club within the same transfer window. The players, clubs will all be informed and in the loops of all these information, so that there will be no dispute arising from contractual/registration issues.

 

Non-Football-Only Professional Players

In order to maximize the player career possibilities, attract potential players to enter the football ecosystem, as well as increasing football club’s flexibilities: players that are signed in contracts that is not a “footballer” contract can be considered as “professional player” – as long as the employment contract is a contract term (like a football player’s contract that stretches to football windows). (additional note: A separate agreement may have to be signed and submitted to FAS in order to ensure everything is administratively in order and that the player cannot be sacked within contracted period to protect player’s rights)

Which means, business / corporate teams that are formed with employees, can actually “go pro”.

I understand people would think, this seems like “cheating the system” or have concerns that these players won’t be training as much as “real professional players”. But think about it: why would FAS be dictating how much training any football club is conducting? If the clubs chose to have lesser training and risk worse footballing results, that’s really none of FAS’ business… That is their prerogative.

However, consider this: this will allow so many of the very very good players (both local and expats) that had been through the high level youth football development, that may have abandoned dream of playing football professional due to poor prospect – to actually have an opportunity to ease back into football. A problem that had plagued Singapore football significantly, as football as a career is often viewed as “no career / future” – and honestly speaking, is very grounded in reality. So we need to change this.

Allowing employees of companies to be considered as professional players in FAS’ eyes will also allow football players to have opportunity to expand their skillsets/work experience – to allow them to instant transit out of football into the private sector with ease. Some of these football players could also be working within the football club in other roles, like marketing, HR, accounting, etc… maximizing the cost efficiency of the club’s overhead – and also allow some of the more talented footballers to get contract with a team that he may usually not gotten, because the club could not afford another full time footballer that ONLY train and play football.

If evolved right, we can change the paradigm of “football-only” professional footballers to avoid resting on their laurels and improve the awareness on the need to do more outside of just playing football – spending their free time outside of training and playing, to build their personal brand or learning new skills – so they can perform better as club ambassador, role models, marketing assets, influencer, etc… Because in the right climate, the more you do, the more you grow, the better you become professionally – and by extension, benefitting the entire football ecosystem. The value of the footballer would increase, thus improving “employability” as a full time footballer – think Cristiano Ronaldo at the top tier of such a footballer. (read the next section as FAS should be aiding football to “be more”).

All in all, this could accelerate the growth of professional football in Singapore and could even jumpstart the professionalization of Singapore football, reducing the hurdles of forming full professional teams that currently plague the ecosystem due to myopic concept that “professional footballers only train and play football” and nothing else. The reduce barriers to become a Tier 1 (Professional Club) would definitely be a very attractive prospect for any Amateur or Semi-Pro clubs to go Professional, and definitely attract corporations to consider fielding their business house teams in the FAS league system – gaining added brand awareness/recognition and marketing possibilities.

This is a important thing, in my opinion, because Singapore isn’t a big country: we may not have the population to support 100 team league system (which I am proposing) PURELY sustained by fans and sponsorship on top of whatever prize money they can obtained via footballing results. We have to be rational and think outside the box. We are Singapore. We had excelled because we always think outside the box, exceeding beyond long held presumptions. Singapore football should be no difference.

 

Human Capital Development + Post Football Career Development

There is a severe disregard by the FAS in the future careers of professional footballers. Many players are left stranded after their playing days, or when their clubs are arbitrarily disappeared from the league.

Under the auspice of this white paper, there will be a persistent program of continual education/training as well as scholarships/bursaries for all professional players. Amateur and semi-professional players can also tap on certain select programs as well as bursaries.

The training programmes/courses supported should add on to the growth and enhancement of the football ecosystem.

Programmes should range across:

• Football Coaching
• Football Refereeing
• Fitness Coaching
• Sports Science-related (Physio, Dietary, etc)
• Marketing
• Graphic Design
• Motion Graphic / Videography
• Journalism
• Commentary/Punditry/TV Hosting
• Sports Management

Programmes can come in the form of scholarship or subsidy to study in Polytechnics or Universities on the related course (with multi-year bond commitments within the Singapore football ecosystem). The programmes can also come in forms of short courses (like football coaching/referee courses, ), part-time internships (while playing and during off seasons) as well as internships/added roles within the clubs they are already playing in. Opportunities to practise/use what they learnt will also be offered within FAS and FAS leagues, so that the footballers can gain relevant industrial experiences in the

For amateurs and semi-professional players playing within the FAS’ league systems, they will be granted to join selected short courses which are more football-related as well as apply for bursaries for their studies. For promising players that have intentions to go professional, they may also qualify for scholarships for extended full time studies at institutions of higher learning (but will have to serve multi-year bond as a professional player under the FAS’ payroll)

A “human capital” department within FAS will be formed just to focus on the human capital development within the football circle. The mission of the department is to grow the quality and expand the size of human capital among the people participating within the Singapore football ecosystem. Funding for the programmes will come direct from Membership Fees.

We should want our footballers to be more multi-talented and capable than just a single dimensional footballers. I believe this will enhance their confidence on and off the field, eliminating the post-playing day stress that hangs on every professional players thus allowing them to perform better on the pitch. Most importantly, this will ensure that our footballers will have a career after football – and hopefully, in roles that continue to contribute to the growth of Singapore Football.

 

Youth Football System + Goal 2034

Because of the inception of the Goal 2034, which entails a lot of youth development within the school system, that I personally isn’t very sure how successful this “School Academies” plan is going to be and differ from the vanilla school football teams other than asking the players to play more often. Nevertheless, this seemed a lot more like a government initiative than a FAS thing. Regardless, this is going to exacerbate one of the pressing issue facing local youth football: the lack of competition beyond 16 years old age group.

The football ecosystem is currently a dysfunctional pyramid. With a wide base at the bottom where a huge percentage of the boys play football, rising up through the school football competitions with probably over a 100 teams for each age group competition from primary school to secondary school – which represents over 1500 – 2500 school team players actively playing football.

However, the moment these player graduate from secondary school, the number of playing spots to play competitive school football falls to just around 10 teams (from my estimate). With the elimination of the Prime League system, the lack of football teams for these thousands of players to play in means most of these kids would simply decide that it is the end of their “footballing career” and proceeds to move on to other things/focus. This uniquely Singapore situation will exacerbate with the schools football academies. It would be a drastic waste of resources to invest in primary and secondary school level football (youth football) only for 80%~90% of all these players to simply drop out entirely from the competitive-level of the sport the moment they leave secondary school.

On top of that, Singapore currently actually have a very vibrant youth football scene, especially with the formation of the ActiveSG Football Academy by SportSG to add on to the already awesome elite football academies ecosystem. I strongly believe that, the only thing lacking, is a national youth football league (which I am already trying to make happen via the Singapore Youth Football League venture), so that all the youth academies can spar against each other and gauge their standards/levels better (although this might backfire to certain academies whom cannot get a good standing affecting their sales – but thats just the natural way things should develop – free market principles).

Beyond the youth scene, which I think is already very strong, is to create an ecosystem for the U17 – U23 age group.

I would propose a few things to build up this part of the football pyramid:

• Introduction of a reserve team system (as per mentioned), where the reserve teams will predominantly U23 teams + 5 overage players, playing a level down from the team/club’s first team.
• National youth football league for players up to 19 years old, which covers all the way up to Polytechnic/ITE age, right before they enter the National Service – which we will encourage the youth academies to continue to develop players up to 18 years old, as well as FAS League teams to groom their future (or 3rd team) teams via this national youth football league platform.
• And if there are still players that were overlooked, they will be roped into FAS teams that will be participating either in the national youth football league or the FAS League (in the lower divisions) – so to ensure all the potential players continue to play competitively.
• High potential players will be given scholarships by FAS to ensure that they will continue to play competitive football despite their studies (multi-year bond as professional player), so that we do not lose future football stars just because they decide that football is not a viable career.
• Young Lions to stay as a FAS team, but as a strictly U23 team (with no senior players) and the policy of FAS taking all the best youth players from SPL/Sleague club will be eliminated. Youth Lions will be used to allow high potential players that failed to get a professional contract with any FAS League teams to get playing time and stay within the competitive scene. It will stop to be an avenue to groom the “SEA Games” squad.
• SEA Games squad will be selected across the entire FAS league ecosystem, exactly like how the full National Team be selected (will be covered later in the white paper).
• National Football Trials, to help uncover hidden gems (players that are not already recruited by teams). All the FAS league teams will be invited to send their scouts to witness the trial and sign up players. FAS scouts will be present to select players for the FAS teams.

 

National Service Issue

There were endless talk about how National Service is impeding football development and the football careers of young footballers looking to a career in football. Personally, I’m not entirely convinced because there are physical training in the national service and there are football clubs within SAF and the Home Team in which the top top players could be drafted to. However, this is a topic of national debate and we should do something about it.

I propose, to cooperate with the Singapore Government to conduct a 12-15 years experiment: to conduct A/B testing, allow 3 different groups of more or less equal talents (as per identified by FAS and SportSG) for one batch of footballers of the same age group (depending on the appetite of the government, we should conduct up to 5 NS batches of the same age to get a better statistical accuracy):
– one group to serve NS immediately like usual
– one serve NS at 25 after a special deferment just for this national experiment
– one serve NS at 30, a full deferment, allowing the player to play out the entire football career to its maximum

Conduct experiment over 12-15 years (since players can serve NS as early as 17 years old).

The objective is to see

1. if the “NS immediately” group actually catch up with the career of the “serve at 25” and “serve at 30” by the time everyone is 25 years old.
2. if the “NS immediately” and “serve at 25 group” career by the time they are 30 years old as compared to the “serve at 30” group (which essentially play entire football career unabated)
3. Qualitative comparison study to be conducted by a combined expert group MOM, SportSG and FAS over the 12-15 years experiment period (looking into the players career progress, sporting/athletic growth, sports science-related studies as well as in-depth comparison of player match statistics)

This will essentially end the debate and question about NS impeding football careers one and for all.

Conditions:

• Any players that had not serve NS, quitting football or unable to secure a professional contract for the subsequent season will have to serve NS immediately (which also signify that they “failed” to prove that not serving NS is a better option).
• Any players changing nationality or not return to NS should be regarded as desertion and should be punish with the full extend of the law (especially they are given special privilege to defer their NS)
• No one, including personnel from FAS is not allowed to influence the result of the experiment by providing incentive or disincentive that is exclusive to players in the experiment, or biasness in selection in both club and country – in order to push for a certain results for this experiment.

To be honest, I can already see the results being “not much of a difference between groups” – but I may be wrong. And we should take this seriously.

Meanwhile, we can also conduct a study that is similar in scope to study the career progression difference between a player serving their NS earlier (right after secondary school), a player serving later (right after poly, JC, ITE) and a player that serve late (after university). We can based on the results of the study to provide concrete recommendations and career planning for high potential youth footballers, so that they can maximize their potential while continue to obey the law by serving their National Service.

 

National Team Selection

It is in my observation that the selection for the National Team had not been as meritocratic as we like to think it is. There is an overwhelming selection of players from the FAS’ academy system (NFA) – for example, there is a way higher chance for a player playing or formerly played in the Young Lions to get selected for the National Team. As a result there is an overwhelming sense by the football community that a lot of good players that are in-form are neglected in favor of the FAS youth system players. Of course, it won’t be clear to outsiders like me to know what is the actual selection criteria. But selection of poor form “big name” players had been a common occurrence that I doubt anyone can deny.

What I propose that, the National Head Coach should still have the majority of the power to select his players.

50% of the players (13/25) – From a list of shortlisted players that are selected by performance via data analysis
12.5% of the players (3/25) – From top tier league head coaches and team captain voting of the best performing players in the league
12.5% of the players (3/25) – From fans/members/public voting of the best performing players in the league
25% of the players (6/25) – Direct selection by the National Head Coach that are not short listed already.

Any duplicated players between the system shortlisted players and voted players, will represent additional slots that the National Coach can select from.

The idea of this proposal is to ensure the maximum embodiment of meritocracy within the National Team selection. We owe it to the wider public as a National Sport Association (NSA) to be as accountable as possible, while at the same time, ensuring that the Singaporean virtue of meritocracy permeates through our entire football system, right up to the top level of our National Team.

 

FAS vs National Team Relationship

There seemed to be always an obsessive connection between FAS board/leadership and the National Team results/performance. This had always been a very bizarre issue in my eyes for the longest time. How would the FAS President and his committee be responsible for the performance of the 11 players on the field? And on top of that, that also resulted in a perverted cycle of FAS management deflecting the poor footballing results using stupid excuses and then dumping it on “new strategies” to “revamp things” – which usually ends with “lets focus on Youth Development” – which had been the case for 30 years now. This perversion have to stop.

The footballing results of any national team is purely dependent on the form and performance of the players in the national team, the tactical decisions and player management of the national team coach, and perhaps, by extent, the national team manager that is in charge of managing the entire national team affairs – with the maximum potential of the national team pure dependent on the strength of the national player pool – which is purely dependent on the strength of the football ecosystem.

The ONLY part that FAS management/leadership have “control”, is the development of the football ecosystem, which in turn, should improve the maximum potential of any national team that will be presenting Singapore, because there is either more players for the coach to select, or even better, more high quality players to select, because we have a thriving and powerful league.

Thus the solution is NOT youth development – the solution to better national team results is ALWAYS strong ecosystem.

I would be horrified if our Singapore Government or PAP leadership blames a recession or poor economic results on our education system, and instead of fixing our economic ecosystem, they decide to “revamp” the education system. This is perverted and an insult to the intelligence of Singaporeans.

As such, the “CORRECT” symbiosis between FAS and the National Team should be that FAS makes the best efforts to help the National Team coach select the best players as well the facilities for them to train – while the National Team coach and players would be highly responsible for their football performance on the pitch. FAS analytics team will come out with an estimated range of how well the National Team can go in a tournament, results against the various teams, benchmarking based on past results and the quality of players in our side and the opponents – so we have a realistic idea of how well the National Team is performing.

For a vague lousy example via FIFA ranking: we shouldn’t be able to defeat a team that is ranked 50 places higher than us. Thus drawing such teams is a very good result. If we can upset and win against them, it would be a super good result. An example was Singapore’s ability to hold Japan to a 0 – 0 draw in our away game. That was a very good result given the maximum potential of our team.

Teams within 20 places above and below us is basically teams that is similar to our standard – thus a good result is to beat them. Losing is a bad result. Drawing is a… “can do better” result. Teams ranked better than 20 places all the way to 50 places, winning clearly is a very good result and even drawing would be a good result.

Such expectations have to be communicated clearly with the public, and benchmark what is a good run in any tournaments we are playing in – so we can stop playing the stupid blame game that just always end up with some useless “changes” that is never tracked and always forgotten. Lets move on and treat all these more professionally.

 

Freedom of Speech / Expression and Press Relations

There is a strong sense that the press in Singapore is really not on the side of the FAS. Not just FAS, sometimes, it seemed like they are largely against Singapore Football. I’m not sure if it due to some bad blood in the past between FAS and the national press/journalists – but if so, this need to change. On top of that, it is widely known that people working under the FAS’ system had gag orders on them (players, coach, managements) – they do not have the freedom of speech to express their truthful opinion about FAS, the league or the referees. I think this is not right and absolutely against what Singapore is all about. This is what I reckon as a blatant infringement of the democratic (social equality) rights of Singaporeans and a sign of the dictatorial trait of the FAS.

Dictatorships have no place in Singapore – thus this must change.

The gag order basically meant that there is nothing sensational for the media to really report on – which in term, reduce the amount of colorful content that journalists can play with. The result essentially mean soulless match reports, mundane post match comments and awkward interviews where players and coaches find it rather more comfortable not to participate at all. All the “revelations” by retired players with alternative medias, like the The Final Whistle, just showed the extent of the censorship of their true feelings during their playing days. This cannot be continued.

There must be no punishments, punitive actions or gag order from the FAS for anyone to simply speak their mind. If their opinion is critical of the FAS, the onus is on FAS to explain their positions publicly and individually-directly to quell the differences or insist on the differing position. Censorship and restricting free speech, should never be an option.

 

Facilities (FAS Stadiums / Training Centres)

I understand that currently SportSG had built a National Football Centre at Kallang, next to the National Stadium. However in my opinion, this is insufficient.

This is probably good enough for FAS’ national teams (including youth levels), but it will not be sufficient the support the wider football ecosystem that I propose.

As such, I am inclined for FAS to build at least 2 large football training centres/facilities, to be used exclusively by football clubs playing the FAS league system.

I had identified one of the site, to be the grass field on top of the Sengkang MRT depot. I understand the sensitive nature of a protected facility, which is why the facility can only be used by FAS league clubs with access strictly monitored and managed. The grass space above the Sengkang Depot could easily fit 6 full size football fields. I am willing to work closely with SportSG, LTA, URA, and any other relevant authorities to make full use of this space (rather than just leaving it untouched). This space is unlikely to be used for any other purpose since the grass space is actually the “roof” of the depot.

There are still a lot of green grass spaces that are un-utilised (even within Industrial estate would be good enough), which I believe FAS should be able to work out some kind of arrangement to monetise and utilize this space for productive purposes.

On top of the above, I feel that Singapore football needs at least 4 more dedicated football stadiums, that can sit from 2000 up to 15,000 people. Given the inappropriateness for current SportSG stadiums to be further developed in ways that top tier league clubs needed, I propose that FAS working the relevant authorities to make use of unused government land in highly accessible locations to build temporary stadiums.

In my vision, this stadiums will utilize that bleachers/stands similar to those already used for Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix. These stands as proven in the Singapore GP that they strong and good enough for a world class event, they are definitely good enough for Singapore football. Laying down an artificial pitch, surrounded by these stands, use container offices/structures to create dressing rooms, offices, VIP area, merchandising (all of which are mostly not allowed in SportSG stadiums currently) – and with pasar malam style food stalls. With the freedom to customise the stadium and decorate it anyway we want – I’m sure every match day can become a carnival!

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For the floodlights, we can make use of the ones used by Singapore GP, which should be powerful enough to light up the entire stadium and for broadcast/photography purposes.

All FAS league matches will be played at FAS stadiums or SportSG dedicated football stadiums, for example Our Tampines Hub and Jurong East Stadium, with exception of those Tier 1 Clubs that have their own home grounds. These FAS Stadiums will also act as additional football training centers for FAS league clubs to utilize.

The stadiums also be leased out for commercial uses/purposes for additional revenue (on non-match days), for example music concerts, religious events, etc…

All these facilities are temporary in nature, as such, will make it easier when the Government demands the land back for redevelopment/development, we would be able to tear down everything and move all these assets wholesale to a new location to rebuild the stadium. This will definitely require good relationship with the Government to ensure we will always be offered location to build our temporary stadium.

 

Futsal

Futsal (FIFA standard futsal, not the local variants with artificial grass) had been neglected entirely by the FAS, I would want that to change.

Similar to my belief in football, a strong football league is fundamental to a strong national team – a strong or good futsal league would be vital to the formation of a credible national team.

Thus there will be important need to develop futsal stadiums/venues that can be used for the Futsal league. For a start, we can start off with just 1 stadium, and build the league up from there. Given the lesser investments required to develop futsal teams, I believe this league can kick off immediately at least as a Semi-Pro Futsal League.

All the building blocks would likely be similar to what I am proposing for the Football leagues. But since we should be starting something from scratch, we should begin the league with 1 division first, expand the division to a maximum of 16 teams, then add more teams to build a 2nd division. The strategy would likely be similar to what I had proposed for football leagues, so the strategy/planning can be developed later for the expansion for multiple division futsal when the first division is ripe for adding a 2nd.

Since the matches are indoor, we should be able to kick off matches in the morning on weekends all the way till evenings.