Football Leagues in Singapore
Football League structure
The table below shows a combination of the National League and Top Amateur football leagues which follow FIFA law of the game according to the level of play.
National Leagues
Singapore Premier League
| Founded | 1996 (as S. League) 2018 (as SPL) |
|---|---|
| Country |  |
| Confederation | AFC |
| Level on pyramid | 1 |
| Domestic cup(s) | Singapore Cup Community Shield |
| International cup(s) | AFC Champions League AFC Cup |
| Website | spl |
The Singapore Premier League, formerly known as the S.League is a professional football league organised by Football Association of Singapore. The league was formed in 1996, replacing the semi-professional FAS Premier League and became the nation top tier league. The League is played by 9 professional football clubs based in Singapore whereby there are 3 rounds for each club to play against each other. Hence every club in the league will play a total of 24 games upon the completion of each season. Hence this will be a total of 108 matches and the season last from March to October. However it was postpone after starting a few matches in 2020 due to Coronavirus cases in Singapore. The origin of the SPL can be traced back to 1921 whereby a representative club of Singapore, known as the Singapore Lions took part in the Malaysia Cup and winning the title for 24 times. Eventually the FAS and the FAM went into a dispute which eventually lead the lions from withdrawing from an FAM sanctioned tournament. This then slowly lead to the formation of FAS premier league and eventually the S.League, now known as the Singapore Premier League. When the S.League was formed, there were 8 clubs which took part in the inaugural season. Geylang United won the first ever S.League title upon defeating the SAFFC in a stadium filled up 30,000 crowd which remains a record breaking number of attendance to this day.
| Season | Winners | Runners-up |
|---|---|---|
| 1996* | Geylang United | Singapore Armed Forces |
| 1997 | Singapore Armed Forces | Tiong Bahru United |
| 1998 | Singapore Armed Forces (2) | Tanjong Pagar United |
| 1999 | Home United | Singapore Armed Forces |
| 2000 | Singapore Armed Forces (3) | Tanjong Pagar United |
| 2001 | Geylang United (2) | Singapore Armed Forces |
| 2002 | Singapore Armed Forces (4) | Home United |
| 2003 | Home United (2) | Geylang United |
| 2004 | Tampines Rovers | Home United |
| 2005 | Tampines Rovers (2) | Singapore Armed Forces |
| 2006 | Singapore Armed Forces (5) | Tampines Rovers |
| 2007 | Singapore Armed Forces (6) | Home United |
| 2008 | Singapore Armed Forces (7) |  |
| 2009 | Singapore Armed Forces (8) | Tampines Rovers |
| 2010 |  | Tampines Rovers |
| 2011 | Tampines Rovers (3) | Home United |
| 2012 | Tampines Rovers (4) |  |
| 2013 | Tampines Rovers (5) | Home United |
| 2014 | Warriors FC (9) | |
| 2015 | | Tampines Rovers |
| 2016 |  | Tampines Rovers |
| 2017 | | Tampines Rovers |
| 2018 | | Home United |
| 2019 | | Tampines Rovers |
Singapore Football League
| Founded | 1975 |
|---|---|
| Country | |
| Confederation | AFC |
| Level on pyramid | 2–3 |
| Relegation to | Singapore Island Wide League |
| Domestic cup(s) | FA Cup SFL Challenge Cup } |
The Singapore Football League (SFL), Formerly known as the National Football League is a top amateur football tournament founded in 1975. The league is contested by football clubs that are affiliated with the Football Association of Singapore. The SFL consists of 2 divisions, Division 1 and Division 2 with relegation and promotion apply between these divisions. The SFL, then known as the NFL used to consists of 3 divisions until 2014 when the NFL Division 3 was folded. The SFL Division 1 was a top tier football league in Singapore since its inception in 1975, succeeding the Singapore Amateur Football Association 1st Division football league. The SFL Division 1 continues to be top domestic league of the nation until the introduction of the semi-professional tournament, FAS Premier League in 1988 which eventually folded in 1996 upon the introduction of the professional S.League, now known as the SPL. The domestic cup competition for the SFL clubs is the Singapore FA Cup whereby the clubs compete with the IWL clubs in a knock-out format competition. The SFL also served as a path for amateur and semi professional football to get into a professional path and at the same time for professional player from S.League to continue playing football at a highly competitive level upon their professional contract expiration from the SPL.
Division 1
|
Division 2
|
Division 3
|
Singapore Island Wide League
The Singapore Island Wide League, IWL is a qualification tournament for clubs that are associated with the FAS to get into Singapore Football League, SFL the following year.
| Country | |
|---|---|
| Confederation | AFC |
| Level on pyramid | 4 |
| Promotion to | Singapore Football League |
| Domestic cup(s) | FA Cup |
| Website | Website |
| Season | Winners! |
|---|---|
| 1991 | Wellington FC |
| 1999 | Singapore Recreation Club |
| 2010 | Sporting Westlake |
| 2011 | Siglap CSC |
| 2012 | Vipers FAA |
| 2013 | Yishun Sentek Mariners |
| 2014 | Kembangan United |
| 2015 | South Avenue |
| 2016 | SAFSA |
| 2018 | Project Vault Oxley
|
5-a-side/Futsal Leagues
There are currently no professional futsal leagues in Singapore. However over the years many private organisation have organised an amateur futsal leagues. The amateur 5-a-side leagues in Singapore have their own separate oraganiers and they are not put together in a pyramid. Each league consists of at least one division. Futsal players who played in one of the leagues are eligible to participate in another league of different organisation as long as they are not full time Singapore Premier League players. Most of the amateur 5-a-side leagues allowed Singapore Football League players to participate in their league, thus enhancing the league standard and quality of play. All the futsal leagues are based in one location and most of the league do not share the pitches. The current top Amateur 5v5 league is organised by D2D and they are the Sahara International Futsal League and the Arena Futsal League. D2D's 5v5 leagues are currently the most systematic and well-organised with the highest quality of 5v5 play in Singapore. Some of the well known and successful 5-a-side football clubs and futsal clubs in Singapore are Sunrise FC, Happy Family FC, Dorset Boys FC, ProFut5al Club and King Albert Park FC. As of March 2020, there are no current specific Futsal league ongoing be it in professional or amateur level though there have been a National Futsal Tournament in the past.
| Location | D2D's 5v5 Leagues | |
|---|---|---|
| Home United Youth Football Academy | Sahara International Futsal League Brotzeit Fan Club Futsal League | |
| The Arena | Arena Futsal League | |
| Our Tampines Hub | OTH Futsal League | |
Beach Soccer
As of March 2020, there are no beach soccer league ongoing however there have been an annual Beach Soccer competition known as Singapore Beach Soccer National Championship organised by Pro-am Beach Soccer. The latest edition was held on 2018 at Sentosa Island.
7-a-side Leagues
There are currently no professional 7-a-side football league in Singapore. However ESPZEN, a football organisation associated with Football Association of Singapore have organised a well structured 7-a-side midweek league that currently consists of 2 divisions and will be expanded to 3 divisions the next season after the Covid-19 cases. Many top 7-a-side players have taken part in the tournament and one of the well known player was Nagarajan suppiah of Senkang Rangers who played for Singapore national minifootball team in 2019 WMF World Cup. The top teams of the league since it began in 2018 are FC Singapore Pacific, Honey Badgers FC, Senkang Rangers and FC Dynamo Raptors. FC Dynamo Raptors currently also became the first team to win two consecutive seasons in Season 2 and Season 3 while Senkang Warriors became the first team to be a runner-up in two consecutive seasons in Season 1 and Season 2. Nagarajan suppiah of Senkang Rangers hold the most record of goals Scored in season 1 with 49 goals and also a total number of goal scored from Season 1 to Season 2 with 92 goals. The league is expanding and ESPZEN is in discussion to have an affiliation with a 7-a-side global football organisation IFA7 that is affiliated with FIFA or another organisation FIF7. The Stranger Soccer is another football organisation that is independent and not affiliated with the Football Association of Singapore that is currently running a 7-a-side football league started in September 2019. The league now has 1 division and they are looking to expand the league in the near future.
| Country | |
|---|---|
| Level on pyramid | 1-3 |
| Website |
| Level | 7-A-Side Leagues | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ESPZEN Midweek 7-A-Side League Division 1 | |
| 2 | ESPZEN Midweek 7-A-Side League Division 2 | |
| 3 | ESPZEN Midweek 7-A-Side League Division 3 Stranger Soccer 7-a-side League | |
References
- "Football: Goodbye S-League, welcome Singapore Premier League". The Straits Times. 21 March 2018. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
- "Singapore League (S. League) - Infopedia". Eresources.nlb.gov.sg. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
- "National Football League Division 1 - Football Association of Singapore". Fas.org.sg. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
- "National Football League Division 2 - Football Association of Singapore". Fas.org.sg. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
- http://www.cosmoleague.com/
- "Island Wide League - Football Association of Singapore". Fas.org.sg. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
- https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/sport/albirex-win-singapore-premier-league-title-three-months-to-go-10552962
- http://www.spl.sg/
- http://www.fas.org.sg/
- https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/football/football-contenders-aplenty-as-new-singapore-premier-league-season-kicks-off
- http://www.fas.org.sg/competition/national-football-league-division-1/#results
- http://www.fas.org.sg/competition/national-football-league-division-2/#res
- https://www.straitstimes.com/multimedia/photos/in-pictures-s-league-through-the-years
- https://espzen.com/index.php