Young Lions Football Club, commonly known as Young Lions, is a Singaporean developmental

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 ...

club that competes in the

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 r ...

. The team is under the direct control of 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 ...

. The Young Lions are one of the few football clubs in the world which place an age restriction on team members while playing in a top-flight professional league. The Young Lions plays their league matches at the

Jurong West Stadium Jurong West Sports and Recreation Centre is a centre for sports and recreational activities. It was officially opened to the public on 10 November 2006. It is the largest integrated sports centre in Singapore. Location The stadium is located in ...

. Their best S.League finish was third, which they achieved in 2004 and 2006.

Goal

By entering the Young Lions into the S.League, the FAS hopes to expose young players to top-level competition, thus helping to prepare them for international tournaments such as the

Southeast Asian Games The Southeast Asian Games, also known as the SEA Games, is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games are under the regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with sup ...

. While the bulk of the Young Lions squad is made up of members of Singapore's national under-23 team, the club also takes in promising young foreign players (e.g. Luka Savić). However, foreign players are normally only recruited into the Young Lions squad if they could potentially change their nationality to Singaporean and be eligible to play international football for Singapore at some point in the future.

Malaysian domestic competition

In 2011, the Football Association of Singapore and the

Football Association of Malaysia The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM, ms, Persatuan Bola Sepak Malaysia) is the national governing body of football in Malaysia responsible for organising the Malaysia national football team within the country. The Football Association o ...

reached an agreement that would see greater cooperation between the two nations. One of the intended avenues will see Young Lions play in the Malaysian Super League 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 o ...

from 2012 onwards, the first time a Singaporean team has participated in Malaysian domestic football since

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, bor ...

won the 1994 M-League and Malaysia Cup double. Although the new Singapore team will have the existing Young Lions set up at its core, the squad will be permitted up to five local players over the age of 14–16 players, as well as a number of overseas players in accordance with the quota set out by the rules of the Malaysian competitions the team will play in. Ultimately though, a new team was created for the Malaysia league: the LionsXII, while Young Lions remained in the S.League.

National Football Academy

Most of the Young Lions players come from the NFA ( National Football Academy) and new players (from the NFA) will be promoted to the Young Lions squad every season. The National Football Academy enters both the Singapore NFA U-17 and Singapore NFA U-18 teams into the

Prime League The Prime League was the reserve and youth team soccer league of Singapore's S.League. Teams involved in the league are primarily made up of youth players from the S.League clubs. The Prime League was founded in 1997. S.League clubs are required ...

to allow their players to gain more exposure and match experience by playing against older and more established players.

Performance in domestic competitions

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A ...

saw the introduction of penalty shoot-outs if a match ended in a draw in regular time. Winners of penalty shoot-outs gained two points instead of one.

Players

Players on loan

Staff

Source:

References

External links

Official club website

S.League website page on Young Lions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Young Lions FC Football clubs in Singapore Association football clubs established in 2002 2002 establishments in Singapore Singapore Premier League clubs