IF football is simply about balls, Singapore finally found a leading coach with the daring balls to speak his heart out to the sorry state of FAS (Football Association of Singapore) affairs.
Vincent Subramaniam is no ordinary coach. He’s a former national coach with a renowned reputation for dedication and discipline, on and off the field of play.
He’s a FIFA-accredited football lecturer and Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) Elite coaching instructor, who won back-to-back S-League titles in 1997 and 1998 with Singapore Armed Forces (now Warriors FC) and he was decorated with the S-League Coach of the Year award on both occasions.
And when he saw red after the Young Lions’ 1-0 loss to defending champions Albirex Niigata on Friday, in his first match in charge of the fledgling S-League side, Subramaniam fired from the hips, almost like a Made-in-Singapore “Rambo”, to why Singapore football is truly in a mess.
No newly-appointed S-League head coach would ever do it. But Subramaniam, who returned from Bangalore, India, where he migrated a few years ago, saw it fit to call a “spade a spade” and slammed the FAS administrators in an extraordinary way that probably may well risk him getting the boot.
But he cared or feared none over his future as he felt he had to blast in a terrific tirade over the low-morale state of Singapore football, where even SportsSG and even the government, too, will now raise their eyebrows to why a No 1 sport is now struggling almost in its doldrums.
‘SOMETHING IS TERRIBLY WRONG’
“The game itself has to grow. We can’t say after 20 years that we are in the infant stage. Somebody is wrong somewhere,” said the former Singapore national team coach, before the journalists, who if given the awkward choice, wanted to applaud him for his exemplary lion-hearted bravery to question the shoddy back-room organisation at the FAS Jalan Besar Stadium headquarters.
“You cannot be in the infant stage after 20 years…the technical aspect of the game in the S-League has to be taken care of by the technical department. Twenty years now and no-one has done it,” he said. “They have developed the referees but we didn’t develop the game. We don’t analyse players.”
With the S-League in its 22nd season and in the throes of collapsing because of poor crowd support and overall administration, Subramaniam daringly questioned the “professional stature of the S-League”.
He asked: “How can a professional train two hours a day and call themselves professionals? I told someone just during the week that the Singapore professional player has got the best job in the world because he only works two hours a day.
“The reason they gave me was ‘eh coach, no field’. How can a professional train two hours a day and call themselves professionals?
“We are the guardians of this game…I need to pass on to my younger coaches. Same as the players, they have to guard this profession so they can pass on to the young players.”
BUDGET CUTS TO S-LEAGUE
He warned that the S-League will die a natural death, especially with the Tote Board (the primary government-supported financers of the professional league) intending to severely cut the budget by half next season.
“If you don’t look after the job, the integrity of the job, then we lose football as a profession,” he warned. “You go anywhere in Singapore, they work eight hours a day – why is it that professional footballers only work two hours a day?”
Touching his heart, Subramaniam also let fly at the overall management of the sport in Singapore, with football under-performing in every regional arena, from the national team right down to the age-group levels, in recent South-East Asian competitions.
Hitting the nail on the head, Subramaniam said: “There’s no accountability here. We need to step into the clubs and not only just accredit the coaches with coaching qualifications but also look into the preparation, the technical aspects of the game.”
Never pulling his punches, he also accused “people involved in the competition” of not giving the Young Lions enough respect, changing their training venues ahead of their game with Albirex, who beat the Young Lions 8-0 the last time around.
“This week I have been very heavily let down by people who are involved in this competition,” he said. “I don’t want to name names and all I ask for is an even playing field.
‘I FEEL LET DOWN’
“Don’t treat the Young Lions as another team and you can push me from Jalan Besar to Geylang, Geylang to Jalan Besar. This week I have been very heavily let down by people who are involved in this competition.”
Angrily, he warned: “I don’t want to name names. But that’s not the way to work. I plan my sessions systematically. I worked very hard over the last five days to make sure I pay attention to details.
“I’m a professional no doubt about that and I expect everyone else who works in this tournaments to be professional as well.”
He pointed the fingers clearly at the FAS lack of internal organisation and added: “The shoddy treatment they provided me this week was very unfair and I think my players too felt quite shameful to put on the jersey as Young Lions when you don’t treat us with respect.”
Sadly, the Young Lions have come under severe fire in recent times for their performances in the S-League, and the youngsters lay bottom of the table. But Subramaniam defended his side, which has yet to win a game in the competition this season.
“Young Lions are not here to win the S-League, but Young Lions are here to get the experience. We hope that in the future we also can win more games,” he said.
Subramaniam saluted his players, who only conceded a first-half goal against the Japanese-based club and pointed out that the “dogged performance against defending champions Albirex as an example of the team’s potential”.
“I think next year a lot of them will be with the (other S-League) clubs. If you go by the performance today, some coaches were probably watching the game today (and) would give them a chance in their club,” he said.
GROOM THE YOUNGSTERS
“That’s where our success story is. If we can blend all these players to be good, to be sufficiently playing well, go on to the other clubs, and play in the S-League and secure a contract, I think we would have done tremendously well.”
How the FAS responds to the extraordinary honesty of a regionally-ranked award-winning coach, who spoke without fear or favour, will be closely watched in the coming days.
After the sloppy performances at SEA Games downwards, it’s time for Lim Kia Tong and his newly-elected council to touch their hearts and go down to the drawing boards to admit that they’re holding on to a failed organisational regime.
It’s ripe time for a lot of heads to roll. Those under-performing and discreetly hiding behind the FAS corridors at Jalan Besar Stadium must be given the boot, if football ever wants to pick up credibility with the man-in-the-street.
For the moment, it’s hats off to Vincent Subramaniam.
In his first match with the Young Lions and he hardly pulled punches to speak his mind to the very pathetic state of FAS affairs.
- Suresh Nair is a Singapore-based journalist who has known Vincent Subramaniam for over three decades and ranks him as one of Asean’s most proficient football minds.
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