Should Gavin Lee be Singapore’s Next National Coach?

Singapore’s dazzling run to the Asian Cup has resulted in calls for Gavin Lee to be made the permanent Head Coach for the Singapore National Team.

The decision lies with the FAS, and is the singular most important decision that it has to make.    Appointing a manager on the basis of recent results is always tempting (eg Ole Gunnar Solksjaer).  But the more important question is to ask what is the mandate – ie what is to be achieved in what period of time and with what resources.  At the core, the FAS must be clear what is the project desired and then turn to the right man for the job. 

The Singapore National Team that played Hong Kong was not one that was formed overnight.  The names of Izwan Mahbud, Shah Shahiran, Ryhan Stewart, Harhys Stewart, Glenn Kweh, Ilhan Fandi, Amirul Adli, Akram Azman and Jordan Emavime were not regulars in the National Team at the start of this cycle.  They are all certainly regulars now.   Safuwan Baharudin came back into the National Team after a long absence because of medical reasons.  Throw in also the name Kyoga Nakamura who finally became a Singaporean.  Throw in Jacob Mahler who featured before, but has only just recovered from a horrendous injury.  In short, the National Team has undergone nothing short of a transformation.  This was the project given to Tsutomo Ogura at the start of the cycle. 

At the end of the last World Cup campaign, the Singapore National Team finished with one of the oldest squads ever, an average age of 29, certainly the highest in ASEAN.   A clear mandate was given to Ogura to aggressively bring in younger players.  The previous squad had reached the end of the cycle.  We had the confidence that Ogura could do this because he did this when he was in Tokyo Verdy.  Their team in Year 1 was very different from the one in Year 2 in J2.  In Year 2, Verdy won promotion. 

Blooding young players is painful.  They have to be fielded even if they are not 100% ready. They take minutes away from more experienced players.  In friendlies, there will be times where there is wholesale substitutions, disrupting the flow of the game.   To help the coach do this, we removed the obsession with FIFA Ranking points. The unsaid words were “It is ok to use friendlies to develop players.”  Ogura grabbed this with two hands.  It was very usual to see Ogura play a weak squad at the start of friendlies and then change it up in the second half.  He ceded an entire window playing international matches in favour of a training camp in Japan.  He was criticised for this.   Some of the losses in friendlies were tough to take, especially a home loss to Nepal.  He was criticised for this too.  But if we are to be consistent, this is part of the process. 

We told him we judged him on the teams’ performance in tournaments.  He took Singapore to the semi-finals of the AFF, and when he left earlier this year, Singapore was top of the Asian Cup Group.   In the process, a new Singapore team emerged.   

When the new FAS leadership stuck with Gavin, it was an endorsement for the continuity of this project.  Gavin had worked with Ogura for more than a year.  They spoke highly of each other and were of the same mind.  Gavin was familiar with the squad and them with him.  He chose to keep the same squad till the end of the qualifying phase.  The foundation for this campaign was put by Ogura, the finishing touches by Gavin. Credit to both, especially to Gavin and the FAS in laying the base for him to do so well in the last few months.

But what is the mandate if Gavin is to be the coach for the next phase?  In the next 14 months, there are two tournaments.  The AFF takes place in the middle of 2026.  This is now officially a FIFA tournament with all players will be released.  This will be a far stronger tournament and Gavin probably deserves to bring the team to the AFF with a target of equalling or surpassing what has been done in 2024. 

But it is the AFC Asian Championship in Jan 2027 that worries me.  In qualifying for the first time, Singapore will struggle no matter who is the coach.  We are the lowest ranked team to qualify for the Asian Cup.   Our opponents in the Group phase will all be in the top 100 given the seeding pots.   Singapore will do well to secure a point or score a goal in Saudi Arabia.   I do not want Gavin destroyed because of this. 

Gavin is a young coach with lots of promise. As a local, he gets Singapore completely. He cannot be set up to fail.  So, if he is to be appointed, he must be protected.  He must be given a clear set of expectations and Gavin should only take the job if he feels that the expectations are within his capability to deliver.  At the age of 35, there is no shame for him to say that he has plenty of time to continue to hone his art, and possibly to learn much more from someone who has something to teach him.  There will also be another cycle of renewal at the end of the Asian Cup in 2027.  And perhaps at that time, Gavin may be an even better coach for Singapore.

Is the $2m Bonus a Good for Sport

        When the Singapore Football Team created history by beating Hong Kong on their own turf on the 18th of November 2025, Forrest Li, the President of the FAS, announced that the bonus for the entire first team and staff would be tripled.  A few days later, he announced that the team would receive a $2m pay out for making it to the Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia 2027.  This was the single biggest pay out for football players ever.  In side conversations, people asked if this money came from the FAS or from Forrest’s own pocket.  I knew the answer from the start.  The amount is almost 15% of the budget of the FAS.  The amount paid out in fact surpasses what an SPL club receives in grants for an entire season.  It had to come from his own pocket.  Even the President of the FAS has to follow procedure in the use of the Association funds.  

On 7th December 2025, reporters Sazali Abdul Aziz and Kimberly Kwek from the Straits Times wrote a “Big Question” article: Is Forrest Li’s $2m bonus for the Lions good or bad for Sport?  

Let me say one thing at the start.  More funding in any sport is a positive thing.  It is even more crucial in an ultra-competitive sport like football.  Football globally receives more funding than possibly all the other sports combined, and the countries around Singapore outspend us by a significant factor bar countries like Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia.  Funding in football has gone into sharpening every single bit of advantage that can be eked out – facilities, programs, sports science and diet, structure and organisation, pay etc.  More money will help Singapore compete. 

Motivation and Money in Sport

But the Big question asked is if spending $2m on bonus for the players was a good or bad thing.  I will not address the other question of whether this is the best use of additional money in football.  I will instead focus on this question: Is a huge bonus a big motivation for players to perform on the field?

Although the link between incentive pay and performance is not definitive in behavioural economics, in football, there is a general acceptance that “pay for performance” is important.  At the club level, the contract of footballers are always written in ways to spur performance.  Players have individual bespoke contracts based on appearance, goals scored or conceded, minutes played and so on.  They are paid when targets are met.  But there are also bonus pools allocated to team performance – win bonuses, progression in cup tournaments, league placements, and trophies won as some examples.  Some contracts are also multiyear. A player may be rewarded if the team wins promotion within three years, reflective of a longer-term project. 

But at the national level, things are very different.  In each FIFA window, FIFA compels clubs to release their players for international duty with zero compensation for the club.  The National Association are not expected to pay players, although many do.  But it is always done at a fraction of what their primary clubs do.  While players can turn down the national call up, most do so because of reasons other than remuneration. There are multiple reasons for this.  The clearest one is that wearing of the national jersey is for most players the pinnacle of a football playing career.  Representing the country in the highest possible reward.  There is also a sense of duty.  The fan base expects the best player to turn up.  Imagine the backlash to the personal standing of a player would get if he refuses to turn up for the national team on the basis that he is not adequately compensated. It is also clear that international football is a stage to perform.  An excellent performance by a player on the international stage increases the value of the player significantly. 

For many years during my time in the FAS, Chinese Taipei ranked above Singapore in the FIFA Rankings.  I asked the then President of the Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA) how they rewarded their players.  The then President was very clear that the CTFA was an underfunded organisation and was not in a position to dish money out.   But this did not represent a problem.  CTFA paid players US500 per game, which is a miniscule amount.  Apart from pride, playing for the national team was the pathway to the Chinese Super League (CSL).  No CSL club scout watched local Taiwanese football.  But they all watched the Chinese Taipei National Team.  Getting picked should be enough motivation for the players to perform.  

Limited bonus actually is the norm for most countries around our ranking.  As an example, Hong Kong also offered a very limited bonus of HK$1m for the team to beat Singapore and qualify for the Asian Cup.  This is less than 10% of the $2m eventually paid by Forrest to the Singapore team.   Recent SEA Games bonuses offered by Thailand and Vietnam were even less in the order of magnitude.  So the $2m paid out is generous indeed.  Those who say this is unsustainable are correct.  So it must be clear that this is not the norm.  

But it is not every day that Singapore qualifies for the Asian Cup.  So this is a one off.  And if it is so, in my book, it is ok.  The way that the FAS did it was correct.  They announced a standard bonus at a sustainable level before the game - $6000 per player for a win, and $40000 for qualification.  The special bonus was on top and was completely of the prerogative of the donor.  In fact, if any Singaporean wants to give a special bonus, this is completely their prerogative.  Erick Thohir, the President of PSSI in Indonesia, is said to favour this same protocol, giving special bonuses after the game.  As another example, it was widely reported that Hassan Sunny was the recipient of “donations” from Chinese citizens after his goalkeeping heroics in the Singapore goal allowed China to advance to the next round of the world cup at the expense of Thailand.    It was unexpected, and it was a one off on the back of a heroic performance.  Who are we to say that what Chinese citizens did was wrong?

Hariss Harun put the role of bonuses best in his comments to David Lee from the ST, a day before the match against Hong Kong.  Hariss referred to bonuses as incentives and nothing more. “Of course, it can motivate you in a certain way, but in sport and in international football, its so much more than that when you are playing for the national team, because of what it means to everyone in Singapore…. the bonus is not the foremost thing in our heads – we are just fully focused on the game itself.”  

Hariss has got it spot on.  A bonus is no doubt important to make the players feel appreciated and will always be a positive thing.  But this cannot be the primary reason for the player wanting to play and perform for the National Team.