Singapore Men’s Football Team Not Joining the Upcoming Asian Games Due to “Recent Performances” & “Conflicting Schedules”

By
Zhi Hao
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0-7. An utterly humbling scoreline that would crumble any football side. And on 11 May 2023, it occurred.

Singapore 0, Malaysia 7.

2 goals in the first half and five goals in the second. It was nothing short of a disaster class for a nation set on World Cup qualification.

Singapore Men’s Football Team Not Joining the Upcoming Asian Games Due to “Recent Performances” & “Conflicting Schedules”

Since then, Singapore’s footballing industry has gone through quite a lot of things. And changes.

A panel, for one, was convened to review the team’s performance. Work on the “Unleash the Roar!” project will also continue.

And now, it has been announced that Singapore’s football team, or at least the Men’s National U-22 team, will not be joining the upcoming Asian Games at Hangzhou.

Instead, the U-22 team will focus on two other tournaments: the SEA Games and the 2024 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Asian Cup qualifying tournament.

Although the team’s recent performances were cited as a reason, it was not the sole deciding factor. Both the Asian Games and the 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualifiers take place within the same month: September 2023.

And with preparation issues as well as other miscellaneous factors at play, the decision to exclude the Men’s National U-22 team from the upcoming Asian Games was ultimately reached.

The National Women’s team will, however, participate as planned.

Recommendations

Following Singapore’s dismal 0-7 loss to Malaysia in the recent SEA Games, a review panel was set up to discuss possible measures that could help Singapore’s football team in future instalments of the SEA Games.

These measures, touted as recommendations, were later made public.

One measure was to shift the Men’s U23/22 side under the Men’s National Teams.

Two tournaments have also been prioritised for the U23/22 side: the SEA Games and the AFC U23 tournament.

Meanwhile, the Singapore Premier League may have its rules tweaked in such a way that U23/22 key players will have increased playtime.

A list of U23/22 squad players may have standard Individual Development Plans (IDP), which will support the improvement of their individual abilities.

Elsewhere, the long-term Unleash the Roar! project, which was kickstarted in 2021, is also underway: work on a prospective partnership with Spain’s La Liga Academy is reportedly progressing.

The Minister for Culture, Community and Youth recently said that Singaporeans should not expect results overnight.

It will be a “long-term endeavour”, with more progress to come.

Whether Singapore will do just that and achieve World Cup 2034 qualification, however, remains to be seen.

In the meantime, we can only hope that the 0-7 match is akin to a blue moon, not a half moon.

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Zhi Hao
Email: [email protected]