SINGAPORE — With the recent crises in Singapore football, former national striker Aleksandar Duric believes it is time for the administrators of the local game to step up and prove their worth.

A group-stage exit last month’s South-east Asian (SEA) Games was followed by news of a possible cut in funding for next season’s S.League, which is a blow for the struggling competition.

And on Friday, the Singapore U-15 team were thrashed 0-11 by Japan in an AFC U-16 Championship qualifying game, just days after being spanked 1-6 by Malaysia. The results extended the Republic’s age-group teams’ (U-15, U-18 and U-22) dismal competitive record to 14 losses and five wins in 19 matches.

Duric, who scored 376 times in 520 appearances in Singapore football competitions from 1999 until his retirement in 2014, contended that this simply means the new regime at the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) have to find ways to keep the league going beyond its 23rd season next year.

Current FAS president Lim Kia Tong assumed his role together with a new council after the elections at the end of April, but have so far not unveiled much in the way of plans to revive the sport.

“We shouldn’t go backwards, we need to look forward because we have a generation behind us of kids who want to play football and be professional players,” Duric told TODAY last week on the side-lines of a Masters Football event.

“And to do that, we need to keep our league alive, we need to invest private monies (and) we shouldn’t be reliable on the jackpot and government funding, which is not new (in other leagues) around the world.... Finally, we can say now it’s time, from the clubs to the federation, to step up and try to engage as many companies for support.

“Then, we can see a lot of improvement in football in Singapore.”

The 47-year-old added that if the new council fails to transform the fortunes of the local game during their tenure, then they have to go.

“They have to go look now for sponsors, but also this will show whether they are capable of running the organisation, basically,” he said.

“So now, nobody can hide anymore. The old regime used to be happy to get funding and hide, now the new council are in the eyes of the stakeholders and all of us are watching them, to see what they are going to do next year and how they are going to save our football.

“So basically, if they are not good enough, like (how it is) everywhere else, they should step aside and get in the people who can do the job.”

BE PATIENT

The ex-Lion, who scored 24 goals in 53 caps before retiring from international football in 2012, pointed out the dismal results of at various age-groups levels and said that there is no time to waste.

The Under-22s’ SEA Games group-stage exit was their sixth in nine editions at the same stage since an U-23 age limit was imposed in 2001.

At the continental level, Singapore have not qualified for the last 19 editions of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-19 championships and the last four for the AFC U-15 edition. At regional level, no Singapore side has made it out of the group stages at the Asean Football Federation (AFF) U-19 and U-16 championships for the past seven and four editions respectively.

“I think we need to do something to change the football. The way we are now in all age groups… results don’t lie, it’s not good,” Duric said.

“We are missing a proper plan in grassroots development, we are missing a lot in youth development. We wanted to do a lot of things not step by step but jumping 10 steps instead and now we are paying the price of that.”

Duric, who currently heads the Active Singapore Football Academy as its principal and has around 950 kids under his charge, believes it is never too late to start a revamp, but warned that plans have to be given time to bear fruit.

“Now, the culture here is we don’t have patience,” he said. “We believe it’s like banking but it’s not like you put in the money today and you’ll get some extra money the next day.

“Football and sport, in general, is about patience and building up from the young generation. At this ActiveSG Football Academy, we have nearly 1,000 kids from all kind of age groups, both boys and girls… they need to enjoy football first, to love sport, then we can really see some improvement slowly and then some talents, which can be groomed for the future, then we can really talk about the next five or 10 years.”

HEAT IS ON

He is at least encouraged by the improved performance of the Lions in their recent Asian Cup qualifier against Turkmenistan at home, where they spurned a number of chances in a 1-1 draw.

“We should have won that game, but in the end football is like that, if you don’t take your chances, you get punished. But the performance was much better than the previous home qualifying game against Taiwan,” said Duric referring to the 1-2 defeat.

The result extended Singapore’s winless run to nine games and 18 matches have now elapsed since they have scored more than once in a game, the last time being a 2-1 friendly win over Myanmar last March. Since V. Sundramoorthy took over in May last year, they have scored nine times, kept five clean sheets and conceded 27 times in 17 matches.

The draw also left Singapore at the bottom of Group F with three matches remaining, their qualifying hopes in tatters and Duric can empathise with the pressure the players are under after the recent run of dismal results.

“The fans who look at the results on social media and are posting many things, players see that and make themselves even more under pressure,” he said.

“We are not getting results recently and then the pressure is building up and some players can play under pressure and some can’t. So I think that’s the biggest reason why we are not playing well, the players are all feeling the heat, and hopefully we can get some results soon.

“The next game is tough and will probably decide whether we have any chance to get to the Asian Cup because away to Turkmenistan, it will not be easy… first of all, it’s a long journey to go there, then you face a partisan crowd.

“Hopefully our boys will turn it on and give their best and get the result.”