By Samindra Kunti
August 14 – Back in April, at the tiny Jalan Besar stadium in hot and humid conditions, Harimau Muda ground out their first S.League win of the season against Young Lions, 1-0. From the stands Michel Sablon was watching on with much interest. The Belgian is a seasoned observer of the beautiful game. He had watched games from the USA to Indonesia, but this was his first acquaintance with Singaporean football.
The Young Lions are a unique club, operating with an age restriction on team players. They had entered the S.League in 2003, under the direct auspices of the Football Association of Singapore FAS to expose young players to top-level competition with the aim of preparing Singapore’s youth sides for international tournaments, including the Southeast Asian Games.
“I was not very enthusiastic about the level of football – [I didn’t see] the constructive game that I had expected,” said Sablon. “I have often seen Japan and Thailand, they play quick and good football with not too tall, but explosive players. That was totally not the case, it was more akin to ‘kick and rush’.”
Sablon immediately realised the magnitude of his task ahead. In early April, FAS had unveiled Sablon as their new technical director. FAS marketed Sablon as the new messiah, the savior of Singaporean football.
In the 70’s Sablon was a modest player with Merchtem. Then he became Belgium’s assistant-coach at Mexico 86, Italy 90 and USA 94. Sablon won global acclaim as a visionary technical director at the Belgian FA in the nineties and noughties.
France 98 was a seminal moment: Belgium ‘excelled’ as a defensive and organised unit, exiting, without lustre, in the group stages. Sablon and Bob Browaeys, a youth coach, proposed a radical overhaul of Belgian football, implementing a 4-3-3 formation at all grassroots and youth levels. The emphasis was on the individual development of players. Today Belgium are ranked second on the FIFA ranking.
“We shouldn’t be silly about the fact that this is an exceptional generation,” admitted Sablon. “You have to be honest about that. It’s the result of good youth development. I lived through it all, the evolution of those players, who moved to the Premier League and are now triumphant there. In our vision the player is central and important, not the team, not becoming European champions – we could have if we had played all the players that were eligible for that age category, but we didn’t do that. We maintained the principle that a player, who moved up [an age category] would not return, that was the case with Kompany, Witsel, De Bruyne, Fellaini, etc. Then they got a chance to prove themselves at the highest level. Most of them were substitutes for a year or two in the Premier League before they broke through.”
“Secondly, there is a lot of talent in the U21 and U19 teams, that’s no longer coincidence,” continued Sablon. “In the lower youth leagues there is also a lot of talent and that’s the result of the clubs’ work. We did that together. All directors of Belgium’s youth academies were part of our committees and spread our vision and adapted their vision, oriented towards the individual development of the player and not the team. Anderlecht, Standard and Genk, Club Brugge somewhat less, have produced a lot of [good] young players and continue to produce them.”
A move from Europe’s elite to Singapore was not odd for Sablon. He got multiple offers to work in Eastern Europe. Saudi Arabia also wanted to employ Sablon, but ultimately he chose Singapore after meeting FAS President Zainudin Nordin in Paris, where the latter had studied at the E.S.I.E.E, a graduate engineering school. Nordin and FAS had not just come to prise away the architect of Belgium’s meteoric rise to football’s top – they believed in him and understood that for Singapore’s football to improve a long-term vision was imperative.
FAS’s own five-year strategic [2010-2015] plan had failed. The plan had six key goals: establish Singapore as one of the top teams in Asia, enhance the profile of the game, grow the business, work with partners to establish a network of facilities, continue to strengthen the leadership and management at all levels and increase participation at all levels in the game. Singapore didn’t penetrate Asia’s top 10 and slumped to a current 155th position on the FIFA ranking. It was too much a case of rhetoric and paperwork.
“At grassroots level and at technical level, a lot needs to happen,” said Sablon. “I have three big pillars in my plan: [the first part is] the grassroots, the basis, 6-9 years, the second part is the development of the elite youth, that’s the golden age, 10-13 years and than there are the national youth sides, 14-18 years, the third part is the education of coaches. That’s catastrophic.”
In 1994 Sablon founded UEFA’s coaching convention, together with Andy Roxburgh, former technical director of UEFA, and Gerard Houllier. He worked constantly to design and update the education of coaches within the European confederation, but he has been dumbfounded with the general Asian coaching level. Next week he is reuniting with Roxburgh, technical director of the Asian Football Confedertion (AFC), and Houllier at an AFC congress in Kuala Lumpur to establish a coaching convention in Asia.
“The courses in Japan are very different from those within UEFA,” explained Sablon. “Japan are considered trendsetters in the region, not only in football. It’s alarming to then ascertain that the level [of the rest] of AFC is even lower than the Japanese level, which in turn is much lower than UEFA’s level. There is an enormous amount of work and we have to start from a blank piece of paper to improve coach education.”
At grassroots level inadequate coaching is but one of the problems. The school leagues, aimed at playing games, are also a drawback. “There are little youth players, who play three games a week,” lamented Sablon. “That means there is no time to practice and to learn how to play football, no time to learn basic abilities. Two weeks ago I went to Cambodia with the Singapore U15 team and those players still have too many weaknesses, technically and tactically, less so physically, but a real football basis is missing. When they move up to the older age categories, until the U23, who participated in the Southeast Asian Games, you see the same shortcomings. Then you fall short: Singapore didn’t even qualify for the semi-finals from a group in which this should have been possible.”
“You have to go back to basics,” said Sablon. “Start with the grassroots, than the next age group 10-13 years, the golden age to emphasize technical training sessions so that when the players move up the youth ranks they are better trained. That’s a long-term vision for Singapore. You cannot change this in two years time. If you want to change football and neither the top nor the professional league are good, then you should start with the basics, like [we did] in Belgium. We started with nothing, we started with 72 people for 1.5 years in various working groups with professional trainers, all directors of the professional clubs and representatives of the second division. It then took another six to seven years before the quality of training improved, resulting in the current national youth teams.”
In Belgium Sablon collaborated with Double Pass, a specialist in talent development systems, and with universities to back up his vision with scientific research and data. KU Leuven screened the different league formats and concluded that children played too much 11v11 in 2000. It was enough to switch to small-sided games, 5v5 and 8v8. In Singapore Sablon contacted the Singapore Management University, chaired by Belgian Arnoud De Meyer. There is mutual respect, but Sablon misses ‘intrinsic knowledge of physical education.’ He turned to Belgium to fill this void, but recognised that a simple copycat of the Belgian blueprint will not work, the context and culture are too different in Singapore.
FAS’s relative lack of funding is another glaring problem. The five-year strategic plan projected an annual budget of €12.5 million. In reality, FAS’s money pouch contains just €6.4 million p.a. That’s dwarfed by Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia, other regional powerhouses. In contrast, the Philippines operate on a third of FAS’s budget, but are ranked 125th in the world.
FAS’s budget is tied to politics as the ministry of sports decrees the funds allocated to sports federations. FAS hired MP & Silva, a leading sports media rights company, to generate more money through sponsorship deals and commercial opportunities. Sablon and one of FAS’s vice presidents, Edwin Tong Chun Fai, an MP, are lobbying the ministry of education to channel more money into football, and in particular the grassroots.
For all of FAS’s multi-pronged approach, ultimately it all boils down to knowledge, according to Sablon, at 68, a doyen of international football.
“The first stage is to internalise what is happening?” said Sablon. “What is the level of football? What is the culture of football? What do people attach importance to? What does the association attach importance to? Is there a plan in theory and in practice? You need to include all these ingredients to form an opinion. A second point is the emotional factor. A third point – I can’t say it differently – is to work hard. You have to get people on board for the realization of your plan. You get them along, when they see you are doing everything for it. Those are the main things, but it comes down to the input of your own knowledge. This morning [August 5] I had a meeting with three professional clubs about the future of their youth teams. You must have the knowledge to convince them of a particular vision.”
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1735002094labto1735002094ofdlr1735002094owedi1735002094sni@i1735002094tnuk.1735002094ardni1735002094mas1735002094