Singapore sacks national football head coach Nishigaya

SINGAPORE: Takayuki Nishigaya has been sacked as head coach of the Singapore men's national football team, the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) announced on Monday (Jan 29).

The decision came on the back of a string of dismal results, the most recent being losses to Thailand and South Korea that have left the Lions at the bottom of their World Cup qualifying group.

FAS said the recent performance and results of the national team were "below expectations", and that an "early transition to a fresh successor would re-energise the team and allow a longer runway for the national team to prepare for important matches in the next few months and the year-end AFF tournament".

The timing of the sacking, less than two years after the Japanese was appointed head coach, was reached after “careful consideration”, FAS said.

A former J-League player who made 100 J-League appearances, Nishigaya started his coaching journey in 2004 as a youth coach in Tokyo Verdy. He became youth head coach before leaving in 2009.

He went on to become assistant coach at Albirex Niigata (2012) and Mito Hollyhock (2013-2015) before being promoted to head coach at the latter. Nishigaya was also head coach of SC Sagamihara before moving on to Matsumoto Yamaga, where he was under-18 head coach, before becoming first-team assistant in 2020.

“The FAS would like to place on record its gratitude and thank Nishigaya for his work in Singapore and wish him every success in his future endeavours,” the governing body said.

FAS said a successor would be announced soon. 

A TURBULENT REIGN

Like his predecessor and compatriot Tatsuma Yoshida, Nishigaya took over the Lions hotseat despite having no prior experience coaching at the international level.

But while Yoshida led Singapore to the AFF Suzuki Cup semi-finals in 2021 - the first time in nine years that the team had reached the last four of the regional tournament - Nishigaya struggled to win over the fans and critics.

His reign got off to an ignominious start just three games in as Singapore fell 1-0 to Tajikistan in June 2022, ending the team's hopes of qualifying for the 2023 edition of the Asian Cup for the first time.

The Lions also failed to get out of the group stage in the 2022 edition of the AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup.

The team exited the tournament following a 4-1 capitulation to Malaysia last January at Kuala Lumpur's Bukit Jalil stadium, ensuring Singapore finished third in Group B on seven points.

The meek display in what was a one-sided Causeway derby invited fierce criticism of Nishigaya's management style, with netizens leaving comments on FAS' Facebook page such as "tactics borrow(ed) from secondary school C division". 

Nishigaya's struggle to win over the fans and wider public was something he understood. He told the Straits Times in September 2023: "I accept your opinion and understand the criticism, but I will face it and won’t run away from it."

But the criticism proved unrelenting, with local sports outlet The Monitor publishing several commentaries on why the 50-year-old was "not equipped for the job", while #Nishigayaout also emerged as a trending hashtag on Instagram and TikTok. 

A raft of friendlies followed after Singapore's AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup exit, which saw mixed results for Nishigaya's men, including draws with Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands and a loss to Tajikistan.

There was hope the team had turned a corner after Singapore eked out a 3-1 aggregate win over Guam in October to move into the second round of the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup. 

However, the Lions' hopes of reaching the third round of the Asian qualifiers for the first time were dealt a damaging blow in November.

The team suffered two heavy defeats as many games - 5-0 to South Korea and 3-1 to Thailand - leaving them rooted to the bottom of their World Cup qualifying group and the loss to the Thais proved to be Nishigaya's final match in charge.