FAS to hold more talks with Fandi

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by Shamir Osman
Updated 12:20 PM Mar 29, 2011 SINGAPORE - He has kept himself busy since his return to Singapore last month. The Fandi Ahmad Academy is up and running and he has co-authored a book - Optimal Fitness for Junior Champions, Ages 7-17 - to help the development of young athletes.

While he continues to explore business opportunities, Fandi (picture), Singapore's first millionaire footballer, also wants to help Singapore sport and the wheels are now in motion for the former FC Groningen and Niac Mitra forward to be more involved in football.

Responding to queries from MediaCorp yesterday, Football Association of Singapore (FAS) president Zainudin Nordin said: "I met up with Fandi last week for a preliminary discussion. It was a fruitful meeting and we will see each other again to explore further some of the initial ideas that were discussed."

Fandi, who is working with the Genova International School of Soccer (GISS) and is also a scout for Serie B club Vicenza Calcio, had expressed a desire to open a professional pathway for Singaporean footballers into Europe recently.

There has been some talk that the 48-year-old, who guided SAFFC to the S-League title in 2000 and served as assistant national coach to Radojko Avramovic in the successful 2004 Tiger Cup campaign, would like to rejoin the coaching set-up at FAS but there have been no firm proposals so far.

"Our discussions are still in the preliminary stages and I'll share more with our stakeholders once the details are finalised," said Zainudin, who is the Mayor of Central Singapore District.