Lim: We have to build local football from bottom upward
Football Association of Singapore (FAS) provisional council president Lim Kia Tong insists that he is under no illusions about the magnitude of the challenge facing his team and him, if they win the national football body's first contested election next month.
The 64-year-old lawyer will announce next weekhis nine-person slate for the April 29 election, during which he will also unveil his team's manifesto.
Among his team's ambitions are to build local football "from bottom upward" and changing perceptions about juggling studies and sports.
"We cannot continue to move the way we have been moving," said Lim, who is up against Hougang United chairman Bill Ng for the position of FAS president, on the sidelines of the launch of the La Liga regional hub office at the National Gallery Singapore yesterday.
MOVE IN TANDEM
"In other words, our managing of football must move to another plane.
"The areas that have not brought us results, or that we feel the world is moving in a different direction, we must also move in tandem."
Lim, who is also deputy chairman of the Fifa disciplinary committee, added that the critics who paint a dire picture of Singapore football are exaggerating the situation, but he agreed that change is needed to lift the sport to another level.
"There are people out there who say Singapore football is in a rut," said Lim.
"The lowest of the low. That everything is so bad, and the incumbents are so incompetent that they should step aside.
"Our team admit that Singapore football is not at its best. How can a ranking of 163rd be good?
"So we know we have to do something to change it."
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