Singapore football league system
The Singapore football league system organizes association football leagues in Singapore. Association football arrived in the city during the British colonial era. The first ever Nation's cup tournament was held in 1892. Football tournaments continued thereafter.[1][2]
History
[edit]The Singapore Premier League, formerly known as the S.League, was introduced in 1996 to replace the Semi-Professional FAS Premier League. It is the first Professional football tournament in Singapore where players work under a full-time contract. The Prime League was introduced in 1997 as the reserve team of the Premier Division. It is more or less a professional youth league and youth players who excel there can be promoted to the first team. After the professional league, the Singapore Football League (SFL) is played for clubs associated with the FAS. It makes up the next tier after the professional league and includes two divisions. The SFL Qualification tournament, Singapore Island Wide League or the IWL is the next tier for newly registered Football Association of Singapore clubs compete against each other to gain promotion to the SFL. In 2018, the Prime League was dissolved, making the then called NFL the next tier followed by the IWL.
Outside the FAS leagues, the most competitive football tournaments are the high level amateur tournaments known as the Cosmopolitan Football League, or the Cosmoleague and the Equatorial Football Leagues, locally known as EFL. These leagues consists of mainly expat players in Singapore and teams from the Cosmoleague and equatorial football league are known to have beaten the SFL and IWL clubs in pre-season friendlies. However teams from these leagues do not gain entry to SFL or IWL as the leages are not organised by FAS.[3] Nevertheless the level of play of Cosmoleague and EFL are similar to the playing level of SFL and IWL, thus making these leagues to fall from Tier 2 to Tier 4 of the overall football league system in Singapore.
Current system as of 2024
[edit]| Level | Leagues | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Singapore Premier League SPL[4][5] S.League formerly no relegation | ||||||||||||||||
| 2 | FAS League | Non-FAS/Expatriate League | |||||||||||||||
| Singapore Football League Division 1 SFL Division 1[6] 8 clubs no promotion ↓ relegate 2 |
Cosmopolitan Football League Cosmoleague[7] 10 clubs no promotion no relegation | ||||||||||||||||
| 3 | FAS League | Non-FAS/Expatriate League | |||||||||||||||
| Singapore Football League Division 2 SFL Division 2[8] 10 clubs ↑ promote 2 ↓ relegate 2 |
Equatorial Football League EFL Premiership Division[9] 12 clubs no promotion ↓ relegate 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| 4 | FAS League | Non-FAS/Expatriate League | |||||||||||||||
| Singapore Island Wide League IWL[10] 20 clubs ↑ promote 2 no relegation |
Equatorial Football League EFL Championship Division[11] EFL Division 1 formerly EFL Sunday League formerly 12 clubs ↑ promote 2 no relegation | ||||||||||||||||
| Tier | Women's Football Leagues | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Women’s Premier League | |
| 2 | Women's National League | |
| Tier | Youth's Football Leagues | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Centre of Excellence U19 Developmental League | |
| 2 | Centre of Excellence U16 Developmental League Tier 1 | |
| 3 | Centre of Excellence U16 Developmental League Tier 2 | |
Past structure
[edit]| Tier | Men's Football Leagues | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | S.League | |
| 2 | FAS National Football League Division 1 | |
| 3 | FAS National Football League Division 2 | |
| 4 | FAS National Football League Division 3 | |
| 5 | FAS Island Wide League | |
| Tier | Youth's Football Leagues | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Prime League | |
| 2 | Centre of Excellence Developmental Leagues | |
References
[edit]- ^ "Singapore - List of Champions". Rsssf.com. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
- ^ "Football Association of Singapore". Fas.org.sg. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
- ^ "History Of Football - The Football Association of Singapore". 26 August 2011. Archived from the original on 26 August 2011. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "Home". cosmoleague.com.
- ^ "National Football League Division 2 - Football Association of Singapore". Fas.org.sg. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
- ^ "Home". equatorialfootballleague.com.
- ^ "Island Wide League - Football Association of Singapore". Fas.org.sg. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
- ^ "L'Olympique Gaulois Singapore, le football français à Singapour". lepetitjournal.com (in French). Retrieved 2022-10-25.