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By Wang Meng Meng
THE Football Association of Singapore (FAS) has firmly rebutted former star striker Fandi Ahmad's criticism that the organisation is "incompetent".
Yesterday, Ridzal Saat, the FAS' deputy director of development and planning, said that Singapore football's governing body is "disappointed" by the former national captain's comments published in The New Paper on Monday and Tuesday.
Fandi made these remarks as he felt the FAS was not quick in naming a new national coach after Raddy Avramovic had decided to step down on Dec 31. LionsXII coach V. Sundramoorthy is the interim coach, while Sports Recruitment International (SRI), an executive search firm, is still in the process of finding a replacement.
Ridzal said: "We cannot understand how anyone who has the interests of Singapore football at heart would object to engaging a reputable international talent search firm to supplement local efforts to find the best person to coach the Singapore national team.
"This is not an uncommon arrangement as many other national sports organisations around the world also do so.
"As we explained, several candidates - through FAS' and SRI's network of contacts - had expressed their interest for the position of national coach over the past few months.
"We added that we could only formalise our arrangement with SRI after coach Raddy Avramovic and FAS mutually agreed not to renew his contract. To do so any earlier would be unprofessional, and would have placed undue distractions during December's victorious Asean Football Federation Suzuki Cup campaign.
"The results of that tournament have vindicated our approach. How this amounts to incompetence is beyond us."
Fandi had also earlier lamented that he had repeatedly offered his services to the FAS but claimed that there was never an offer.
But the FAS begged to differ.
Ridzal said: "Suffice to say, we had offered Fandi positions within FAS in recent years, including the post of head coach - accompanied by a very generous salary package - in one of our teams some time in late 2011.
"He declined the offer and cited the reason that he was not confident in leading the team. We subsequently learnt that he had signed for Johor FA in late January 2012 and we wished him well.
"Another post which we had hoped Fandi would accept was that of assistant national coach early last year. When we learnt from him that his contract with Johor FA allowed him to take on a part-time appointment within our national set-up, we met him in early February 2012 and also sent him details of the national team's training schedules and commitments for the year.
"We asked Fandi to indicate his interest so that FAS could make him a formal contract, which offered him flexibility of schedule. Instead of replying directly to us, Fandi chose to reject our offer through the media.
"In addition to these offers, FAS has also rendered assistance to Fandi through various ways over the years. However, for the sake of confidentiality, we will not go into further details on such assistance rendered."
Meanwhile, Fandi is standing his ground. His South Africa-born wife Wendy Jacobs had also earlier said that their two elder sons, Irfan and Ikhsan, both teenage footballers at the Singapore Sports School, stand a better chance of succeeding in the sport if they played for South Africa as it had been to the World Cup thrice. They qualify for the country through Jacobs' South African roots.
Fandi told The Straits Times yesterday: "I was not misquoted. I stand by what I've said. I also stand by what Wendy said."
But the 50-year-old coach of Malaysian Super League side Johor Darul Takzim wanted to clarify that his charge of incompetence was directed only at the FAS' search for the new national coach.
He rebutted the suggestion that he is upset with the FAS for not helping Irfan and Ikhsan to secure trials with European clubs.
He also refuted the FAS' claim that he was offered the LionsXII job, saying: "There was just one phone call to discuss, that's all. There was never a contract on the table for me."
On the search for Raddy's replacement, he said: "If you fail to prepare, then you prepare to fail. The situation was embarrassing for Sundram, who also has to balance his duties as the LionsXII coach. He did not have time to prepare the team well.
"They (FAS) had already known months in advance that Raddy was leaving. Why the delay in finding a new national coach? Where is the planning? Where is the vision?"
Last week, the Lions lost 0-4 to Jordan in their opening Asian Cup qualifier in Amman with Sundram at the helm.
And Fandi's parting shot yesterday: "I'm not afraid of speaking up because I am passionate, truthful and honest about Singapore football. Sometimes, the truth hurts."
THE Football Association of Singapore (FAS) has firmly rebutted former star striker Fandi Ahmad's criticism that the organisation is "incompetent".
Yesterday, Ridzal Saat, the FAS' deputy director of development and planning, said that Singapore football's governing body is "disappointed" by the former national captain's comments published in The New Paper on Monday and Tuesday.
Fandi made these remarks as he felt the FAS was not quick in naming a new national coach after Raddy Avramovic had decided to step down on Dec 31. LionsXII coach V. Sundramoorthy is the interim coach, while Sports Recruitment International (SRI), an executive search firm, is still in the process of finding a replacement.
Ridzal said: "We cannot understand how anyone who has the interests of Singapore football at heart would object to engaging a reputable international talent search firm to supplement local efforts to find the best person to coach the Singapore national team.
"This is not an uncommon arrangement as many other national sports organisations around the world also do so.
"As we explained, several candidates - through FAS' and SRI's network of contacts - had expressed their interest for the position of national coach over the past few months.
"We added that we could only formalise our arrangement with SRI after coach Raddy Avramovic and FAS mutually agreed not to renew his contract. To do so any earlier would be unprofessional, and would have placed undue distractions during December's victorious Asean Football Federation Suzuki Cup campaign.
"The results of that tournament have vindicated our approach. How this amounts to incompetence is beyond us."
Fandi had also earlier lamented that he had repeatedly offered his services to the FAS but claimed that there was never an offer.
But the FAS begged to differ.
Ridzal said: "Suffice to say, we had offered Fandi positions within FAS in recent years, including the post of head coach - accompanied by a very generous salary package - in one of our teams some time in late 2011.
"He declined the offer and cited the reason that he was not confident in leading the team. We subsequently learnt that he had signed for Johor FA in late January 2012 and we wished him well.
"Another post which we had hoped Fandi would accept was that of assistant national coach early last year. When we learnt from him that his contract with Johor FA allowed him to take on a part-time appointment within our national set-up, we met him in early February 2012 and also sent him details of the national team's training schedules and commitments for the year.
"We asked Fandi to indicate his interest so that FAS could make him a formal contract, which offered him flexibility of schedule. Instead of replying directly to us, Fandi chose to reject our offer through the media.
"In addition to these offers, FAS has also rendered assistance to Fandi through various ways over the years. However, for the sake of confidentiality, we will not go into further details on such assistance rendered."
Meanwhile, Fandi is standing his ground. His South Africa-born wife Wendy Jacobs had also earlier said that their two elder sons, Irfan and Ikhsan, both teenage footballers at the Singapore Sports School, stand a better chance of succeeding in the sport if they played for South Africa as it had been to the World Cup thrice. They qualify for the country through Jacobs' South African roots.
Fandi told The Straits Times yesterday: "I was not misquoted. I stand by what I've said. I also stand by what Wendy said."
But the 50-year-old coach of Malaysian Super League side Johor Darul Takzim wanted to clarify that his charge of incompetence was directed only at the FAS' search for the new national coach.
He rebutted the suggestion that he is upset with the FAS for not helping Irfan and Ikhsan to secure trials with European clubs.
He also refuted the FAS' claim that he was offered the LionsXII job, saying: "There was just one phone call to discuss, that's all. There was never a contract on the table for me."
On the search for Raddy's replacement, he said: "If you fail to prepare, then you prepare to fail. The situation was embarrassing for Sundram, who also has to balance his duties as the LionsXII coach. He did not have time to prepare the team well.
"They (FAS) had already known months in advance that Raddy was leaving. Why the delay in finding a new national coach? Where is the planning? Where is the vision?"
Last week, the Lions lost 0-4 to Jordan in their opening Asian Cup qualifier in Amman with Sundram at the helm.
And Fandi's parting shot yesterday: "I'm not afraid of speaking up because I am passionate, truthful and honest about Singapore football. Sometimes, the truth hurts."
