SINGAPORE — In order to groom the next generation of footballers to play a high-tempo, high-pressing and quick-passing style of football, the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) has turned its attention to raising the standard of players at the schools level.

As such, it aims to set up a new league, running from July to around November, for at least eight of the best footballing secondary schools in the country by next year, with the programme expected to expand to 15 schools in 2018.

These schools will be mentored by the FAS, and will adopt a coaching syllabus that will follow technical director Michel Sablon’s overall development plan.

This league, which is part of the FAS’ five-year strategic plan, is an expansion of its current School Football Academies (SFA) programme. Schools in this league are expected to conduct two training sessions and play a match each week, outside the schools examination period.

The SFA, which was set up in May, currently sees four schools — the Singapore Sports School (SSH), St Patrick’s School, Hong Kah Secondary School and St Gabriel’s Secondary School — playing in the Centre of Excellence (COE) league with nine other S.League clubs’ junior sides.

“The SFA will be one of the key pillars of our elite youth development moving forward,” said FAS vice-president Bernard Tan.

“We currently have four schools taking part in the COE U15 league, and hope to expand it to eight schools playing in this competition from July to November next year, and hopefully to 15 schools by the year after.

“This is a big step in getting our youth to develop their physical, technical and mental abilities, and to play a modern, high-tempo style of football. We believe that it will benefit our national teams in the future.”

However, Tan emphasised that this league would act as an add-on to the current national schools football competition, which usually runs from the start of the year till June, and would allow these youth players to better develop through playing regularly at a competitive level.

“The schools competition ends in the middle of the year, which means for the rest of the time, these students are not playing competitive football,” explained Tan.

“So with this league, students will have the chance to play against the best footballing schools in the country all the way until the end of the year.

“With the regular training sessions required for the students as well, we’ll soon see a new generation of players with better fitness, technical ability and mental proficiencies.

“So we hope that the schools will buy into this programme, because we’re not putting a cap on the number of participating schools.”