The Singapore national football team represents the Republic of Singapore in senior men’s international football. It is organized by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), the governing body of football in Singapore, affiliated with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the regional ASEAN Football Federation (AFF). The current head coach is Takayuki Nishigaya. The team colors are red and white. Singapore is colloquially known as “The Lions”. Singapore Football History.
National Team
Singapore has one of the oldest national teams in Asia, the FAS itself being the continent’s oldest football association. Despite being a relatively sparsely populated country, it has generally punched above its weight by producing a succession of squads that have competed fiercely with their larger and more populous neighbors.
This can be seen in its most significant achievements, which have come in the regional AFF Championship, which Singapore has won four times in 1998, 2004–05, 2007, and 2012. Singapore was the first and only team to achieve this feat. To win all the finals they played. In 1998, Singapore defeated Vietnam in the final to win the country’s first major international football title.
Singapore Best Performance
In the 2004–05 competition, Singapore defeated Indonesia 5–2 on aggregate in two league finals. Singapore retained the trophy in 2007, defeating Thailand 3-2 on aggregate in the final. In 2012, Singapore won the trophy for a record fourth time, again defeating three-time champions Thailand 3–2 on aggregate in the final.
Singapore has also achieved remarkable results beyond its subsidiary confederation. In the 2007 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers, Singapore became the only team to beat Iraq, who were en route to their Asian Cup-winning campaign. Singapore also drew 0-0 and 1-1 at home with China in 2006 and 2009 respectively.
FIFA World Cup
In March 2008, Australia also failed to beat Singapore when the game ended in a goalless draw. During the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Japan was held to a home draw by Singapore at Saitama Stadium, the only game where they dropped points in the group. Despite these results, Singapore has not managed to qualify for the AFC Asian Cup, with their only appearance so far being the 1984 edition due to their hosting.
In 1892, the Singapore Amateur Football Association applied to become a registered society. The HMS Malaya Cup (later known as the Malaysia Cup) was started in 1921 by the officers of a British warship in Malaya, Singapore was one of six teams that took part in the inaugural year, and the event won
Winning Moments
Singapore won 24 Malaysia Cup titles and two Malaysian League titles. After winning the Malaysia Cup and League double in 1994, the Football Association of Singapore withdrew from Malaysian competitions following a dispute with the Football Association of Malaysia over gate receipts. Singapore later launched its own professional league, the S.League, in 1996, and also began to pay more attention to the performance of its national team in international competitions.
At that time, Singapore hosted its first and, so far, only international competition, the 1984 AFC Asian Cup. The team exited the group stage with four points, a 2-0 win over India, and a 1-1 draw with Iran. In the FIFA World Rankings, Singapore’s highest position, in the first release of the data, was in August 1993, at number 73. Singapore Football History.
2016 AFF Championship
In 2016, Singapore was grouped with ASEAN giants, Thailand with Indonesia, and the Philippines and placed in the “Group of Death” because the teams in the group were tough. Singapore then opened their tournament with a 0-0 draw against the Philippines. They then lost 0–1 to Thailand where Thailand’s Sarut Masuk scored a late winner in the 89th minute.
Singapore actually needed at least a draw with Indonesia and Thailand to beat the Philippines to qualify for the semi-finals. It was great news in the first half as Singapore led 1-0 but Singapore’s defense fell asleep and scored 2 late goals for Indonesia to qualify for the semi-finals. Singapore finished their 2016 AFF Championship at the bottom of the table. Singapore Football History.
2019 AFC Asian Cup
Singapore began their 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification – third round campaign against Bahrain on 28 March 2017. Singapore drew with Bahrain with a score line of 0-0. In Singapore’s next game, they played against Chinese Taipei. Where they lost 1–2 to the visitors with scores from Singapore vice-captain Haris Haroon. And goals from Xavier Chen and Chen Chao-en.
Singapore head coach V Sundaramurthy introduce national team day. Where Monday is the day for the players. Who is call to the pitch for a brief meeting and tactical training session? In this call-up, Sundaram recalled players like Rehan Rahman. Sundaram also called up uncapped Ho Wai Loon Tas as a standby player for the matches against Afghanistan and Bahrain.
Sundaram has also called up the uncapped Muhaimin Sohaimi for the friendly against Myanmar. The 2019 Asian Cup qualifier against Chinese Taipei, and the friendly against Argentina. They set a record for not winning a match in a year. Reaching their lowest ever FIFA ranking of 173rd position. Singapore finished bottom of the group with 2 points. Lost the final match 1–0 on 26 March 2018 to preserve the home and away losses against Chinese Taipei. For more details click here