SINGAPORE —  Former national star V. Sundramoorthy has signed a two-year contract extension to lead the Singapore football team.

This was announced by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) in a media release sent late tonight (Mar 13) and comes ahead of their Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup 2019 qualifier against Bahrain later this month.

The 51-year-old had first taken over the reins last May on a one-year caretaker deal, where a semi-final target for last December’s Asean Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup was set for him.

While the Lions subsequently crashed out in the group stage, Sundram has been given the opportunity to redeem himself and is “expected” to guide them to the Asian Cup proper.

Lim Kia Tong, interim president of the FAS provisional council, said: “We believe he should be given another chance to prove himself. We will support Sundram fully and we expect the Lions to secure a top-two placing in Group E of the AFC Asian Cup 2019 final-round qualifiers and qualify for the AFC Asian Cup 2019, which will be held in the United Arab Emirates.”

Sundram, whose charges have been grouped alongside Taiwan and Turkmenistan in addition to Bahrain, was delighted with the news.

“As a Singaporean, it’s an honour to coach the national team and I am very happy to have extended my contract,” he said.

“I am determined to lead our Lions to success during the AFC Asian Cup 2019 final-round qualifying campaign and I look forward to the support of our partners as we continue to develop and grow this sport to its full potential.

The FAS also announced that technical director Michel Sablon has received the same two-year extension to his contract.

The Belgian was appointed in April 2015 and the 69-year-old will continue his mandate of enhancing the youth development system here.

"I am very happy to have signed an extension to my contract which will also allow me to continue this long-term project which we started just two years ago,” said Sablon who has already produced a manual on grassroots football in his time here.

“We are on the right track and I am confident that our youth teams will be able to compete with the likes of Japan and Australia within the next five years – but only if we receive the full support from the various groups of stakeholders.”

Lim described Sablon as “one of the best” in the world and that FAS was “very pleased” with the extension.

“It will be a long but rewarding journey as we strive to further enhance the standards of Singapore football… Our management will continue to fully support and work closely with Michel as he continues to strengthen the foundation of Singapore football and achieve further progress in the key components of our ecosystem.”