Gary Mabbutt and Spurs impressed with Singapore football

By FAS News

Former Tottenham Hotspur captain and England international Gary Mabbutt, MBE, lead a team of Spurs’ coaches to Singapore for the International Player Development Course which is being held this week.

The course is organised by Football Asia, a dedicated football consultancy based in Singapore.

The five day course, open to children between the ages of 6 and 16, will begin on Monday, 14 December.

Tottenham Hotspur is keenly aware that the inaugural Youth Olympics (YOG) will be held in August 2010 and that Singapore’s youth football team will be representing Asia in the football competition for the YOG.

In the spirit of the Olympic Games, Tottenham offered its assistance to the Football Association of Singapore for the Singapore YOG football team.

Mabbutt, along with his team of experienced Premier League coaches, put the YOG football team through the first of three training sessions today morning at the Jalan Besar stadium.

Alex Lockwood, one of the Spurs’ coaches, was very impressed on what he saw on the pitch.

“I am very surprised at the standard shown by the YOG players. We knew coming here that the team is going to be playing in the Olympics but we did not expect such a high standard.

“They were fantastic to work with as they were very organized and respectful. They were able to quickly learn the new drills that we taught them.”

“This actually made coaching them difficult as they hardly made any mistakes and we couldn’t stop the session to correct them,” added Coach Joe Staunton.

Mabbutt and the Spurs’ coaches also held a coaching session for about 30 underprivileged kids from the Muhammadiyah and Jamiyah welfare homes later in the afternoon.

To facilitate a sharing of best practice, experience, capacity building and transfer of knowledge, FAS and various schools coaches have been invited to join the YOG training sessions.

In addition, Mabbutt also held a forum for the coaches, where he talked about motivational methods, man management and Grassroots football.

FAS Head of game development Jita Singh also shared with Mabbutt the new FAS National Football Syllabus which was developed based on the best practices of leading football nations in the world.

The National Football Syllabus was created by former FAS technical director Slobodan Pavkovic and Jita Singh in conjunction with the FAS Strategic Plan as FAS look to move from being one of Asean’s best to one of Asia’s best.

Jita also gave an overview of the programmes that are available in Singapore such as the new Junior Centre of Excellence (COE) programme which incorporates the age groups of Under-8, Under-10 and Under-12.

Mabbutt was amazed by the amount of work that was put into creating the National Football Syllabus and was duly impressed.

“The National Syllabus that you have is extremely comprehensive and invaluable. Every country should have something like this,” he exclaimed enthusiastically.

“This is an excellent idea as most coaching books and manuals are extremely complicated. This is very easy to follow and it helps coaches in a friendly way to achieve their targets.

“This is a very good idea and it makes perfect sense. There are many good processes here in the Syllabus that will work well.

“This is a worth while venture that you (FAS) will see benefits in helping your overall strategic plan as you try to be one of the best in Asia,” added Mabbutt.


About Football Asia
Football Asia, the only leading dedicated football consultancy based in Asia, was founded by Jon Collins and Sean Tan. Football Asia has secured the rights to hold the Soccerex Asia Forum in Asia from 2010 to 2013. Football Asia aims to partner with European clubs looking to expand their commercial influence in Asia, and intends to be a significant player in the development of Asian football. Football Asia is backed by the Centurion Group which is involved in private equity, asset management, real estate and leisure across Asia. Bryan Robson, the former Manchester United captain, is Football Asia’s first official ambassador.

About Gary Mabbutt, MBE
A model professional in the modern era, Gary Mabbutt played over 600 games for Spurs in 16 years before retiring at the end of the 1997-98 season. Numbers alone don't tell the whole story though. Mabbutt battled throughout his career against the effects of diabetes and managed to overcome a serious facial injury in 1994 and a broken leg that ruled him out of the 1996-97 season.

Signed for £105,000 from Bristol Rovers in August 1982, Mabbutt soon tasted glory in the 1984 UEFA Cup triumph before forming one of the best central defensive partnerships seen at White Heart Lane with Richard Gough in the 1986-87 season, which saw the club finish third in the league, reach the semi-finals of the League Cup and, narrowly lost out to Coventry City 1987 FA Cup Final.

Awarded the MBE and winner of 16 full England caps, Mabbutt's proudest moment came when he lifted The FA Cup at Wembley in 1991.