Author Archives: The SG Football Scene

It has been almost a month since we posted anything. A lot has happened in the football world during this time with the ESL saga and all.

Particularly in Singapore football, the ordinary members of FAS have just elected the Council to lead Singapore football in the next term. Big congratulations to them! The hard work to revive Singapore football begins.

A question has been lingering on our minds lately. With the increase in local community cases of Covid-19 recently, will amateur football come back next year?

One thing’s for sure. Football WILL come back, question is when. Let us all pray for us to get back to playing/coaching/watching football, particularly the (renamed) SFL and IWL, again.

With that said, Rob is taking his second dose of vaccine today. Wish him well. Have you had yours?

In January this year, the Lion City Sailors recruited Daniel Lau as their Data Analyst. This article in LCS’s official website talks about how he turned from a fan to a data analyst, a job he loves doing. His job scope includes identifying talents and potential signings for the Sailors through analysing videos of matches.

The question here is do other clubs have their own data analyst as well? If no, is this the right way to go in order to improve the standards of local football?

My opinion is more clubs should come onboard with this approach. In addition to identifying talents, clubs and coaches should also use data to do an in-depth analysis of matches to improve performance. Brainstorming is then needed to decide what data should be collected. For example, think of how we can put numbers to players’ attributes like in games. Think of how we can gather exclusive data like number of complete passes, part of the pitch where the ball is mostly played on etc. These data could do wonders once we have them. We can safely say these data are not readily available. Even the SPL website has limited statistics to show. Someone has to do it!

This is still just an idea. Should there be aspiring or current Data Scientists willing to help our local football clubs at a little to no cost, do come forward and meet up with them. Let the discussion lead to something never tried before (at least I never knew of) in Singapore football. Other countries are already doing it. Liverpool is one of them. Why not us? Same question as why is our only professional league still not adopting VAR? It is time for the next team of FAS Council Members to really think of ways to progress Singapore football, not lag behind.

Cost may be the excuse.

Till next time, support local football!

Before sharing our insights on the local football scene further, we feel it is necessary to know the person behind the writings. As you might have seen, the author of all our posts is named Rob Martins. Just who is Rob Martins?

Rob Martins is a pen name for a follower of Singapore football who got involved in the local football scene some years back. He started out as a Team Manager of an amateur club which was competing in the then National Football League (NFL). Rob was invited by the club’s Head Coach who was working with him at another gig at that time.

Rob joined the club at a time when the Club President was having financial difficulties with his business. It affected the finances of the club and soon the Club President offered to let go of the club to Rob at a sum not to be disclosed. Rob jumped at the opportunity because he did not want his efforts go to waste after helping out with the administrative matters just before the season kicked off.

Few years went by and Rob found himself connecting with other Club Chairmen and Presidents, and enjoying every moment of his tenure. Some of the great memories as a Club President for Rob is witnessing his club promoting to Division One of the NFL, casting a vote in the inaugural FAS elections and knowing almost the whole football ecosystem from within.

Good times didn’t last when funding the club was taking a toll on Rob’s personal finances. He decided to let go of the club to another prospective Club President, at a sum not to be disclosed, lower than what he paid for to acquire the club. It was not an easy decision but it was the right decision for both Rob and the club.

It has yet to be seen how the club will perform under the new Club President as the Singapore Football League and Islandwide League are currently suspended. We shall not give away too much information about the club as we hope to keep Rob’s identity a secret until the right time.

Till next time, support local football!

This weekend saw the resumption of the Singapore Premier League (SPL) after a week of international break. Our national team did not play any match though. A good get together to improve team dynamics nonetheless.

I shall not post the results of the SPL because it can be easily found. Just Google ‘Singapore Premier League’ and you will see the results. Just sharing.

Perhaps the most shocking result is Hougang’s 5-1 thrashing of Tampines on Saturday. A result the Hougang Hools will be relishing for a while. Not much surprises for the other matches but Balestier Khalsa surely deserved their 4-0 win over Tanjong Pagar earlier this evening.

We won’t have to wait long for the next matchday. The match to watch this coming Wednesday has to be between the Sailors and Albirex. Albirex has to win if they want to stay top as Hougang is seen as favourites to win Tanjong Pagar. Don’t take our word for it though, Tanjong Pagar could just put on the surprise like Hougang did.

Till next time, support local football!

In our first post, let us talk about the football structure in Singapore.

Starting from the top, we have the Singapore Premier League (SPL). It is the only professional league and comprises of 8 clubs competing. No relegation for bottom teams. The reigning champion is DPMM FC, whom sadly are unable to defend their title this season due to their country’s Covid restrictions.

The second and third tier of Singapore football is the Singapore Football League (SFL), formerly known as the National Footbal League (NFL). It is an amateur league, sanctioned by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) and currently has two divisions. It has promotion and relegation within both divisions and relegation from Division 2 will go to the fourth tier. The reigning champions for Division 1 is Tiong Bahru FC and for Division 2 is Project Vaults Oxley SC.

The fourth tier of Singapore football is the Islandwide League (IWL). It is open to all clubs, members of FAS, and is a stepping stone to reach the SFL. The reigning champion is Commonwealth Cosmos FC.

There are other amateur and social leagues apart from the above but these leagues are not FAS leagues and they are open to all clubs and teams even if they are not members of FAS.

As for cup competitions, the professional cup competition is the Singapore Cup, open to professional clubs in Singapore and some overseas clubs. For the amateur clubs in the SFL and IWL, we have the Singapore FA Cup.

There we go, a brief introduction of the Singapore Football system. In future posts, we will feature clubs, players, staff and everything about Singapore football that are hard to find.

Till next time, support local football!