The Football Association of Singapore Premier League was a semi-professional football league competition held in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

between 1988 and 1995. The Premier League succeeded the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

Division One as the top tier of the Singapore football league structure. It was replaced by the

S.League The Singapore Premier League, commonly abbreviated as SPL, officially known as the AIA Singapore Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is a men's professional football league sanctioned by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), which ...

in 1996. The

Football Association of Singapore The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) is the governing body responsible for the administration of football in Singapore. Established in 1892 as the Singapore Football Association (SFA), it is the oldest football association in all of A ...

(FAS) entered a representative team in the

Malaysian League The Malaysian League or also known as the M-League ( Malay: ''Liga Malaysia'' or ''Liga-M'') is a terminology used to describe the professional association football league in Malaysia. The terminology was mainly used to describe the league and ...

and

Malaysia Cup The Malaysia Cup ( ms, Piala Malaysia), formerly known as ''Malaya Cup'', is an annual football tournament in Malaysia, held at the end of the calendar year. The cup was first held in 1921. Despite its prestige and popularity as the nation's ol ...

competitions up to 1994. The Singapore team's participation in these competitions was the main focus of most Singapore football fans at the time, and the local league was generally considered to be a fairly minor competition. The Singapore league season was usually held fairly early the year, and many of the Singapore players in the Malaysian competitions also played for clubs in the local Singapore league. Eight clubs - Hwee Seng SC,

Jurong Town FC Jurong Football Club was a professional football club, based in the Jurong area of Singapore. The club played in S.League, the top division of football in Singapore from 1997 to 2003. The team's best league finishes in this period were fifth ...

, Changi CSC,

Armed Forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

Tampines Rovers Tampines Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Tampines, Singapore, that competes in the Singapore Premier League, the top tier of Singapore football league system. Founded in 1945, the club have won the national league ...

, Tiong Bahru CSC, Balestier United RC and

Geylang International Geylang International Football Club is a professional football club based in Bedok, Singapore, which plays in the Singapore Premier League, the top division of football in Singapore. The club was founded in 1973 with the purpose of building ...

- were selected to contest the inaugural season in 1988. The dominant team in the FAS Premier League was Geylang International, which won the league six consecutive times from 1988-1993. In 1994, in a bid to add some spice to the Premier League and generate increased fan interest, two teams from Australia were invited to participate – the

Perth Kangaroos Perth Kangaroos International Football Club is a now-defunct Association football, soccer club based in Perth, Western Australia. Perth Kangaroos played as an overseas team in the 1994 FAS Premier League, 1994 season of the FAS Premier League in ...

and the Darwin Cubs. However, after confirming the participation of the two Australian clubs, the FAS then decided to withdraw all the players in its Malaysian League team from participating in the local league that year. This considerably weakened the strength of the local clubs. Perth Kangaroos won the Premier League that year without losing a game, and the Darwin Cubs finished second. The experiment did not succeed in bolstering fan interest. In 1995, the FAS unexpectedly decided to withdraw the Singapore team from the Malaysian League. Most of the players on the

Singapore national football team The Singapore national football team (, zh, 新加坡國家足球隊, ta, சிங்கப்பூர் தேசிய கால்பந்து அணி ) represents the Republic of Singapore in the senior men's international foot ...

had been due to play in the Malaysian League team. It was therefore decided that the national team should play in the 1995 Premier League competition as a stop-gap measure until the establishment of the S.League the following year. Not surprisingly, the national team finished the season undefeated against the club sides and comfortably won the Premier League that year. The Premier League was disbanded with the formation of the professional

in 1996.

Premier League champions

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fas Premier League Defunct football competitions in Singapore Football in Singapore Football leagues in Singapore

Premier League champions

See also

References