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Thursday, July 15, 2010

 

The Scott O'Donell Column

If you remember Singapore had visions of "GOAL 2010" back in the late 1997 or 98 with the view of qualifying for the recently completed World Cup finals.

They actually set-up a separate "GOAL 2010" department consisting of national and staff coaches as well as the Technical Director. Unfortunately, they soon came to realise that their dream was unrealistic. I think most people knew that it was always going to be too soon for Singapore to qualify for the finals by 2010, but at least they had a go and tried to put into place a system that would help them get there.

Unfortunately I would have to say that it will be a long time before I can realistically see an ASEAN team qualify for the WC finals. We should be taking it one step at a time and look to success at the Asian level before setting our sights on the WC.

Look at the upcoming Asian Cup. ASEAN does not have one representative, which is disappointing. Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia did quite well in the last Asian Cup. Yes, I know they were hosts but I think they more than held their own. I remember the game between Australia and Thailand, for the first 70 minutes, Thailand dominated the game and played the better football. It wasn't until Australia brought on Viduka and Kewell that they got on top.

There are many reasons why ASEAN countries are lagging behind. You can talk about the lack of "proper" youth development systems, the lack of qualified coaches coaching the best youngsters, poor administration of the FA's, coach education, etc etc etc.

But it is not through lack of trying. I know that FIFA, the AFC and the AFF are doing their best to support the Member Associations but these MA's have to start helping themselves. And that means long term planning. Because it is not going to happen in the short term.

One the first priorities has to be ensuring that the local professional leagues are competitive and run professionally. The clubs should each have a strong youth development system where there is a pathway for the players. The clubs must ensure that the coaches of all of their teams are qualified and provide the coaches access to the latest coach education materials.

But this alone is not going to ensure better national teams. We should be looking at developing our best young players with the view to them playing in the stronger leagues in Asia. If you look at Japan and Korea, whilst most of their players play in the J.League and K.League, some of their better players are playing in stronger leagues in Europe. If ASEAN players stay and play in their local league, their development will stagnate, because they will be playing with and against the same players year in year out. If they can play with and against better players, they will become better players.

I think Thailand are doing a good job. They have appointed Bryan Robson and Steve Darby to run the national team, they have a local league that is very competitive and they are, with the help of AFC, trying to get their provincial FA's developing their football with the help of school leagues etc.

I would like to see the MA's put in place a long term plan involving all stakeholders from sponsors, referees, administrators, players, coaches, supporters etc to all work together and agree on a plan to move the game forward so that maybe in 20 or 30 years we may finally see an ASEAN team at the World Cup finals but I cannot see it happening before that.


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