[Telegram Chat] - ???????????????????????? ???? ???????????????????????????????? ???????? ???????????????????? ???????? ???????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????

How things got worse for Singapore football (AI-generated image)

[Quora] - WHY HAS THE SINGAPORE NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM BEEN SO ATROCIOUS IN THE LAST FEW YEARS?

There were a few opportunities in the past when we could have built on after winning those ASEAN titles.

It should have been a natural progression to see us move forward to compete with the rest of Asia rather than remain in stagnancy at the ASEAN level.

Unfortunately, the participation of “Lions XII” in the Malaysian League during 2012–2015 seems to accelerate the declining process.

Mainly because most of the Singapore national players during that period played for Lions XII.

While there were some successes for the team like clinching the Malaysia League title and the Malaysia FA Cup, it came with a heavy price.

During that period (2012–2015), most of the national players did not have a chance to play in the AFC tournaments (i.e.: AFC Champions League, AFC Cup).

As such, these players missed the opportunity to play against vastly improving club sides from around the region (eg: Kitchee of Hong Kong) consistently.

When opportunities to compete against club sides at the international level were not there, naturally the so-called national players did not have the necessary match experience to play at much intense level offered by international football.

That is my take.

(P.S.: The question in bold text was first posted on Quora at https://qr.ae/pK6GgZ - first answered on 1/11/2022, updated on 16/1/2024. Quora is a social question-and-answer website)