The Singapore Football League (SFL) is a semi-professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

tournament for clubs that are affiliated to 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 As ...

. It makes up the second and third tier of football 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 ...

after the professional

Singapore Premier 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 re ...

, which was established in 1996 and before the FAS Island Wide League. The teams are also eligible to compete in the Singapore FA Cup. Although it is semi-professional competition organized by the FAS, several former Singapore internationals and ex- S.League players have played in the NFL such as

Jonathan Xu Jonathan Xu (born 7 September 1983) is a Singaporean footballer who plays for Project Vaults Oxley SC as a midfielder. Club career Geylang International Xu started his footballing career in 2009 when he signed for Geylang International. Ta ...

, Indra Sahdan (Eunos Crescent),

Yazid Yasin Yazid Yasin is a retired Singapore footballer who played most of his career in S.League He is one of a rare handful of players who had won every single title available in the domestic league since its inauguration in 1996. Club career As a ...

(Gymkhana FC) and

Zulkiffli Hassim Zulkiffli Hassim (born March 26, 1986) is a Singaporean professional footballer who currently plays for Tanjong Pagar United. He plays as a forward. Career Gombak United Zulkiffli played for Woodlands Wellington and Gombak United reserve teams ...

(Yishun Sentek Mariners).

History

The history of NFL can be traced back to the earliest 20th century during the British colonization of Singapore, whereby the Singapore Amateur Football Association (SAFA), now known as

was formed in year of 1892. The then SAFA was responsible for organising the top tier football leagues in Singapore. The NFL was a top tier football league from early 20th century, until the formation of FAS Premier League in 1988. It was previously made up of Division 1, Division 2 and Division 3, with the bottom team of Division 3 being relegated to the FAS Island Wide League. As of 2018, it makes up provisional tiers 2 and 3, behind the professional Singapore Premier League, with rules of promotion and relegation applied for teams in NFL Division One and NFL Division Two. Teams play two-round league home-away format. League features promotions and relegations for all the teams in both divisions, where the top two teams of a division will be promoted to the upper division, and the last two relegated to the lower division.

Division 1 clubs

* Balestier United RC * Siglap FC *

Eunos Crescent FC Eunos Crescent Football Club is a Singaporean association football club based in Eunos, Singapore, that competes in the Singapore National Football League. History The club was established in 1975. In 2006 they won Division Two of the National ...

* Katong FC * Police Sports Association * SAFSA * Singapore Khalsa Association * Tiong Bahru FC *

Yishun Sentek Mariners FC Yishun Sentek Mariners FC is a football club based in Yishun, Singapore, that plays in the National Football League Division 1. In 2016, then Yakob Hashim, the coach of Yishun Sentek Mariners, had expressed his unhappiness at the lack of finan ...

* Warwick Knights FC

Division 2 clubs

* Admiralty CSC * Admiralty FC * Bishan Barx FC * Jungfrau Punggol *

Kaki Bukit Kaki Bukit ( Jawi: كاكي بوكيت; ) is a small town in Perlis, Malaysia. It has an estimated population of 3,000. Kaki Bukit is located 26 kilometres (16 miles) north of the state capital, Kangar and a few miles away from Padang Besar, the ...

* Kembangan United * Project Vaults Oxley SC * Singapore Cricket Club * South Avenue SC

Past champions

In 1975, the

revamped the existing league structure involving 118 teams into a two-tier league system. For the 1987 season, the teams play each other once in a league format. The top eight placed teams in the league progressed to a knock-out stage to determine the champions. League stage winners Tiong Bahru defeated 4th-placed Tampines Rovers 2–1 in the final to clinch the championship. Reference: The top tier of the football league system was replaced by the FAS Premier League from 1988, the S.League from 1996 and the

from 2018.

NFL Division 1

NFL Division 2

NFL Division 3

Island Wide League

References

{{Football in Singapore 2 Second level football leagues in Asia Professional sports leagues in Singapore