Singapore football league system
{{Short description|Football league system in Singapore}}
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.{{cite web|url=https://www.rsssf.org/tabless/singchamp.html|title=Singapore - List of Champions|website=Rsssf.com|accessdate=25 January 2019}}{{cite web|url=http://www.fas.org.sg/competitions/spl/|title=Football Association of Singapore|website=Fas.org.sg|accessdate=25 January 2019}}
History
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.{{cite web|url=http://www.fas.org.sg/fas/history-football|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110826074742/http://www.fas.org.sg/fas/history-football|url-status=dead|archive-date=26 August 2011|title=History Of Football - The Football Association of Singapore|date=26 August 2011|accessdate=25 January 2019}}
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
| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" | |
| style="background:#efefef;"
! Tier | colspan=2| Women's Football Leagues |
| 1 | colspan=2| Women’s Premier League |
| 2 | colspan=2| Women's National League |
| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" | |
| style="background:#efefef;"
! Tier | colspan=2| Youth's Football Leagues |
| 1 | colspan=2| Centre of Excellence U19 Developmental League |
| 2 | colspan=2| Centre of Excellence U16 Developmental League Tier 1 |
| 3 | colspan=2| Centre of Excellence U16 Developmental League Tier 2 |
Past structure
| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" | |
| style="background:#efefef;"
! Tier | colspan=2| Men's Football Leagues |
| 1 | colspan=2| S.League |
| 2 | colspan=2| FAS National Football League Division 1 |
| 3 | colspan=2| FAS National Football League Division 2 |
| 4 | colspan=2| FAS National Football League Division 3 |
| 5 | colspan=2| FAS Island Wide League |
| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" | |
| style="background:#efefef;"
! Tier | colspan=2| Youth's Football Leagues |
| 1 | colspan=2| Prime League |
| 2 | colspan=2| Centre of Excellence Developmental Leagues |
References
{{Reflist}}