AIA-Spurs football clinic in Singapore wants to help build resilience in children

LONDON - When a friend recently told Irma Hadikusuma that he was sending his two teenage children to camp during the school holidays, he did not mean a football camp. He meant tuition.

"30 years ago, when we were young, there was no such thing," Hadikusuma, AIA Singapore's chief marketing and healthcare officer, told Singapore media at Tottenham Hotspur's training centre in Enfield, England, earlier this month. 

"During the school holidays, we would all go out to the parks and play football, or play whatever."

Getting children back onto a football pitch is part of what the insurer is trying to do through a partnership with Spurs that dates back more than a decade. The club was picked for an alignment in values, with both sides wanting "real community impact rather than just the typical brand sponsorship", Hadikusuma said.

In Singapore, that means running football clinics with Spurs' coaches during the school holidays for children aged eight to 15. The most promising participants go on to an elite camp in Koh Samui, Thailand, and five were flown to London last year to train at the club's base in Enfield.

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The football clinics are short coaching sessions, usually held over a day or a few days, where children are put through drills and small-sided games by Spurs' coaches rather than playing competitive matches.

Across Asia, more than 175,000 young people have taken part in football clinics run by Spurs coaches, AIA says.

"Even if it's football, it can be female or male. It doesn't matter," said Hadikusuma. "As long as you have the love and passion for the game, you can definitely be good at it."

What she wants the children to take away from these clinics goes beyond football.

"We also wish to see that these clinics and training sessions build the children's mental resilience, which is very important in the Singapore context, with very difficult educational pressures and many different family pressures," she said.

"We want to make sure that the habits they cultivate... carry them through adulthood, be it from a physical discipline and physical wellness point of view, as well as from a mental resilience point of view." 

When asked what advice he would give young footballers, Spurs goalkeeper Martin Dubravkaad chose to address their parents, saying: "Just support your child, because it's still a fantastic game to play. But let them have fun".

The five kids who trained in London took away something beyond the coaching, Hadikusuma added.

"It gives them an opportunity and the realisation that if they invest in something that they really love and they are disciplined in doing something they like, it opens many doors, be it nationally as well as internationally," she said.

Defender Marcos Senesi had a message for the children themselves. 

"There are a lot of dreams when you are young and you want to play football," he said. "If your dream is to play football and you want to go for it, with discipline, you will probably get there."

The partnership is also a route to Singapore's football fans, Hadikusuma noted. "If you talk to any Singaporean, especially men on the street, I think almost all of them are football fans and they support one club or another."

Spurs last played in Singapore in 2023, when they beat Lion City Sailors 5-1 in a pre-season friendly at the National Stadium. Asked whether the partnership could bring the team back, she did not rule it out.

AIA's front-of-shirt sponsorship will end after this season, and from mid-2027 it becomes the club's global training partner until 2032.

All registration proceeds from the football clinics go to the AIA Better Lives Fund, which supports adopted charities in Singapore such as Children's Wishing Well and Rainbow Centre, and places are set aside for their beneficiaries. In 2024, about 100 places were reserved for children from Children's Wishing Well, free of charge.

"People who love football tend to congregate together, be it to talk about football, support their teams or watch football. So, I think it really builds that community spirit," said Hadikusuma.

"I think football is one way to unite our children as well, and this becomes a very integrated part of our community."

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AsiaOne's trip was hosted by AIA Singapore.

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shafiq.apandi@asiaone.com