Contributed by Eric Ong

Jalan Besar Stadium, February 3, 2010 – The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) unveiled former international Kadir Yahaya as the new coach of the Youth Olympic Games team at a media conference this afternoon.

Slobodan Pavkovic was also confirmed for the Technical Director role which he held from April 2008 till the end of last year. He will now continue in this role for the next three years.

National Coach Radojko Avramovic and National Fitness Conditioning Coach Aleksandar Bozenko have also signed extensions to their present contracts which will take them till the end of 2012.

FAS President Zainudin Nordin, Mayor for Central Singapore District, made the announcements and said, "We are delighted to welcome Kadir and Slobodan back. Singapore football is embarking on our next phase which is to compete at the Asian level and one of the key areas is in the area of coaching.

"Kadir is highly regarded and he showed his strengths and expertise in grooming young talent when he was the NFA coach here before.

"Our first choice was always Slobodan for the Technical Director role and we are glad he is able to return to continue his role with us. Together with the Technical team, he was instrumental in coming up with the National Football Syllabus, Skills Assessment and Junior Centres of Excellence."

Avramovic took over the hot seat in July 2003 while Bozenko joined the set-up back in November 2004.

Zainudin echoed the delight of the football fraternity of Raddy's and Bozenko's decisions to continue their successful stints with the Football Association of Singapore.

"They were part of our first two phases of competing and then winning in Asean and will continue to play key roles as we move to the next phase of being competitive in Asia.

"They have contributed immensely in the past six to seven years to the progress of not only our National Teams but also the S.League in terms of sharing of technical knowledge and improvement of fitness levels across the board.”

Kadir, 42, who was with FAS as a coach in the National Football Academy from 2003 to 2007, said, "I'm very impressed with the plan that the FAS have come up with for the next five years and Fandi was very supportive of me coming back to take over the YOG team.

"The second reason is a more sentimental one and it is that I have always been good friends with David Sivalingam and I want to finish the job for him to fulfill his dreams."

Pavkovic felt that it was the right thing for him to come back to continue in the implementation of the plans and programmes he had started with the technical team over the last two years.

The 54-year-old said, "It is good to come back to continue what I've done for the past 20 months. An important part of talent development is to start as early as possible and the implementation of the National Football Syllabus is a very important part of that. I'm happy to be back."

Avramovic, already Singapore's longest serving National Coach, looked forward to the challenges ahead.

He said, "This job has plenty of challenges and these challenges are the reason for my staying. There are many elements that must be put together for a successful national team and that is one of the challenges.

"We have had good results, but as coach, we're never satisfied. There is a lot more that we can do.

"The National Team is on the top of the pyramid, with other squads below it. Youth development is very important. You take care of that area, and you get better quality players for the national team.”

Zainudin summed it up when he said, "We are confident in this team together with our other coaches in the NFA to take Singapore football forward."