SINGAPORE — While the uncertainty surrounding the futures of Singapore national football coach Bernd Stange and his assistant Fandi Ahmad has dominated the headlines the past week, it does not appear to have had a destabilising effect on the Lions ahead of their crucial World Cup Qualifier against Afghanistan next Tuesday.

Stange is set to step down once his contract with the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) expires on April 15, while local football icon Fandi, reportedly, also wants to leave.

News of their imminent departures come just ahead of Singapore’s friendly match against Myanmar on Thursday and their crucial clash with Afghanistan next week.

However, veteran national defender Baihakki Khaizan insists these off-field issues will not prove a distraction.

“Coaches come and go, be it in the national team or at the club level, so it’s nothing new to us,” said Baihakki, 32. “We are all professional enough to know that we are all given a task to do, and we have to win the game no matter who the coach is.

“Whatever changes there may be, we’ll just let the FAS handle it. For us, we’ll just carry on our duties as a national player as per normal.”

Agreeing, striker Fazrul Nawaz added that the entire team would give their full backing to Stange for as long as the German is still in charge of the Lions.

“We’ll head into the game looking to follow the coach’s game plan and we’ll do our best to get a good result against Myanmar and Afghanistan,” said Fazrul, 30.

Singapore are currently in pole position to secure third place in Group E of their 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers — they just need to avoid defeat against the Afghans to do so — which guarantees them a spot in the third round of the Asian Cup qualifiers.

While the match against Myanmar is just a friendly, Stange says the players’ performances would help him decide his team selection for the Afghanistan game.

“I’m very curious to see how the players will perform against Myanmar, as it will give us a better picture of how the team is shaping up ahead of the crucial game against Afghanistan,” said Stange.

When asked about his future with the Lions, however, the 68-year-old remained coy.

“I speak only about the Myanmar and Afghanistan game, not about other things,” he said.