SINGAPORE — The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) and then Young Lions head coach Aide Iskandar came under fire last month after the national under-23 team’s dismal performance at the June 5 to 16 SEA Games, where they failed to achieve its gold medal target after crashing out of the group stages of the tournament.

The subsequent fallout saw Aide announcing his resignation after their last match, and he later alleged in an interview with The Straits Times that his job was made “challenging” by the FAS and, in particular, national head coach Bernd Stange. Stange had called the claim “blatantly false” in a report in The New Paper.

But the FAS claimed yesterday that the “disappointing” result was not because of a lack of support. On Tuesday, the FAS’ executive committee met to evaluate the under-23 team’s SEA Games campaign, and reviewed post-competition reports submitted by the technical team and key backroom staff.

A day after the meeting, the FAS issued a statement that said: “The FAS noted that the under-23 team had received extremely strong support — both from within the FAS and from external parties — for the past two-and-a-half years. While more resources will always be preferred, the FAS believes that what was offered was sufficient. The level of support was not a key issue. Rather, it was largely down to the application.”

Some of the areas the FAS are set to take an in-depth look into include: Team management and tactical decisions made before and during the tournament, a relook into the preparation of the team and players, and a review of the communication issues among management, technical and support staff.

The FAS’ senior management and the heads of various departments will be put in charge of conducting this review.

Former internationals whom TODAY spoke to said that the review is a step in the right direction for the FAS. “It’s good to have a review regardless of how well we have done, so we’ll know what the next best course of action is,” said former national defender Lim Tong Hai.

“We have yet to see what the results of the report is like, but getting to the root of the problems and trying to solve them will yield beneficial results in the long-run.”

Added ex-national player R Sasikumar: “The outcome of the SEA Games for our under-23 team was something that nobody desired. Reviewing what happened is an educational process, but we must now move forward from that.

“There are enough smart minds in the FAS ExCo to know what went wrong, and they will come up with measures to fix it. There is a lot of work to be done, so we cannot dwell on the past for too long or that will just hinder their decision-making process.”

Sasikumar also noted that the FAS had taken decisive steps to improve the flagging fortunes of local football in the immediate aftermath of the SEA Games debacle. In particular, he praised the recent appointments of Belgian Michel Sablon and Frenchman Richard Tardy as technical director of the FAS and national youth teams’ head coach, respectively.

“FAS has taken proactive steps so far by getting people such as Sablon and Tardy in. Both of them have very impressive CVs and I like the intent they have shown so far. Of course, it’s early days, but the proof is in the pudding, so let them do the job before judging them.”

Acknowledging that the Young Lions failed to live up to the expectations of the Singapore public at the SEA Games, the FAS also pledged to “lift all those involved, learn from the events, and ensure that the national team returns stronger to make Singaporeans proud in future editions of the Games”.