Five sporting wishes for a happy 2020

WE are just four days into a brand new year, and I'm already licking my lips in anticipation of what's to come in the world of sports over the next 12 months.

The next edition of football's European championships - Euro 2020 - take place across 12 cities in June, the same month that the best nations in South America battle it out in the Copa America tournament co-hosted by Argentina and Colombia.

Not long after all that football madness, it will then be time to get ready for the Tokyo Olympics, which takes place in the Japanese capital from July 24 to Aug 9.

Here, in no particular order, is my wish list for 2020. As always, I will ask the sports genie to grant me five wishes (instead of his usual three), and fingers crossed, he will agree. Happy New Year!

Schooling to rule the pool

Can Singapore's swimming sensation strike gold on the sport's biggest stage once more? He claimed the country's first gold medal at the Rio Games in 2016, and he's eager to add another at Tokyo 2020.

His 100-metre butterfly gold-winning time of 51.84 seconds at the Sea Games is quite far off his 2016 time of 50.39 seconds. Crucially, it's much slower than the world record of 49.50 seconds set by American Caeleb Dressel at this year's Fina World Championships in South Korea.

But never count Schooling out of any race, especially his favourite 100m butterfly event. The 24-year-old insists he will be in tip-top form come July, and let's all hope he can produce the magic in the pool to make the country proud once more.

Get rid of the VAR

If there's one thing I've learned in this current English Premier League season, it's that there is simply no place for the video assistant referee, more commonly known as VAR.

The intent was to ensure that the correct decisions are made in a match, but what's happened are agonising delays in a match when VAR is reviewing an incident. At times, the players and fans don't even know whether to celebrate a goal being scored, for fear that VAR will chalk it off barely a minute later.

In a nutshell, VAR has sucked the heart and soul out from football. Let's go back to the good old days when the referee on the pitch is the only one to make the decisions. Sure, he may not always get them right, but that's the beauty and unpredictability of the Beautiful Game. Some decisions will go one team's way, some will go the other direction.

More breakthroughs in tennis

Tennis fans witnessed the coming of age of so many young players in 2019. The men's tour saw Matteo Berrettini had a breakout year as he reached the top 10 rankings and qualified for the season-ending ATP Finals in London. Then there was Danill Medvedev, who reached six straight tournament finals, including the US Open.

On the women's tour, we were treated to the continued surge of Bianca Andreescu (the 2019 US Open champion) and Ashleigh Barty (the French Open champion), among others.

These fresh faces bring so much energy and passion to the tennis court, and all signs point to more of these young stars emerging in the coming months.

Greater variety of events at the Sports Hub

There's nothing like watching "live" sport, and I'm hopeful that the Singapore Sports Hub - with its new CEO Lionel Yeo (the former chief of the Singapore Tourism Board) starting work in early-February - will bring in more major sporting events and concerts to keep Kallang buzzing.

Fans want to see more top football clubs and international teams strut their stuff at the National Stadium, and it's about time we got treated to a world-class athletics event or another big tennis tournament.

Singapore's Lions to roar again

Last year will be remembered as the one in which Singapore celebrated Goal 2034 - the ambitious plan for the Lions to compete on football's biggest stage at the World Cup that year.

Fandi Ahmad's Young Lions were abysmal at the Sea Games in Manila as they crashed out at the group stage. To compound matters, six of Fandi's under-22 team broke curfew and faced disciplinary action.

The senior squad under new coach Tatsuma Yoshida have fared better, and they are currently third in their Asian Cup qualification third round group, just two points behind leaders Uzbekistan with three matches left to play. With much to look forward to, fans are becoming more optimistic that Singapore football can definitely roar loud and proud in 2020.