The Football Association of Singapore Premier League was a semi-professional football league competition held in Singapore between 1988 and 1995.[1] The Premier League succeeded the National Football League Division One as the top tier of the Singapore football league structure. It was replaced by the S.League in 1996.
The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) entered a representative team in the Malaysian League and Malaysia Cup 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, Changi CSC, Armed Forces, Tampines Rovers, Tiong Bahru CSC, Balestier United RC and Geylang International - were selected to contest the inaugural season in 1988.[2] The dominant team in the FAS Premier League was Geylang International, which won the league six consecutive times from 1988-1993.[3]
In 1989, Tyrwhitt Soccerites joined the Premier League.[4]
In 1993, the start of the league was postponed from January to June.[5]
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 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. Halfway through the season, Perth Kangaroos' management company, Global Football Australia, declared bankrupt and handed over control of the team to the Soccer Association of Western Australia.[6] As a result, Perth Kangaroos was disbanded after the end of the 1994 season.
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 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[7] as a stop-gap measure until the establishment of the S.League the following year. The national team is restricted to the first 16 players on the team, no foreign signings and not entitled to the league's prize if they won the league.[7] Tickets are not charged for all matches except for the national team's matches held at the National Stadium.[7]
The initial matches of the Lions drew lots of fans, with thousands of fans attending its matches but interest waned after the Lions beat all the clubs one-sidedly.[8] In August, Darwin Cubs pulled out of the league due to financial problems.[8] The season ended with the Lions on top of the league but the winner of the league was Geylang International who was placed second as the Lions was not eligible as the winner.[8]
The Premier League was disbanded with the formation of the professional S.League in 1996.