Zainuddin shocked by Aide's resignation

Zainuddin Nordin, the president of the Football Association of Singapore, has admitted that he was stunned when Under-23 head coach Aide Iskandar resigned on Thursday night.

Aide stepped down from his post after Singapore failed to book their spot in the semi-finals of the Southeast Asian Games as they were beaten 1-0 by Indonesia in a must-win game on Thursday.

"First and foremost, it was quite sad," Zainuddin told 938LIVE. "We knew that it was an emotional moment, not just for the team, but Aide and I think everyone in Singapore.

"It was a bit sad and disappointing for the team so I didn’t want to push the issue further. Let him think about it and reflect upon it. So I think we are all sad and we are shocked by his decision."

However, Zainuddin hinted that the Football Association of Singapore will try and convince Aide to stay on as head coach once everything has settled down.

"I think you know, the SEA Games is a very important event for us Singaporeans and I think he also has the desire to achieve as much success as possible," he said. "I think it is and emotional moment for him. I would like to leave it for him to reflect and maybe after things have calmed down, the grass has settled, we will take the opportunity to talk to him and discuss on the way forward. I think that’s the best way to do it."

Should Aide decide not to take up the head coach position, it is likely that an interim coach will be hired until a permanent replacement is found.

"We have our system in place. We will be able to, in the interim, work out something," he said. "But nevertheless, we will sit down with Aide, and we will also look at our technical team together with our new technical director, Mr Michel Sablon, and see what more we can do to groom our younger players and through our system we will be able to find and put in place a training and trainer and coach that will be able to take over the team and move forward from there."