If we locals dont support it...who will???

Yes, we are talking about the S-League aka Singaporean League. Heres a little historical background to our own professional soccer league.

Prior to 1996, local football competitions or leagues were not the main attraction for football fans in Singapore. Since 1921, Singapore had been entering a representative side (nicknamed the "Lions") in the Malaysia Cup, and later also in the Malaysian League. Along with the state side from Selangor, Singapore was one of the two dominant forces in the Malaysian football scene for over 70 years. Thousands of fans packed stadiums home and away to watch the Lions team take on the best Malaysian sides.

In 1994, Singapore won the Malaysian League and Malaysia Cup double. But that was to be its last year in the Malaysian competitions. The initial push to leave came at the beginning of 1995 when there was a dispute between the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) and the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) over the FAM's desire to impose a levy on the gate receipts of Malaysian League and Cup matches played in Singapore. Rather than accept the levy, the FAS decided that the time was right to withdraw from the Malaysian competitions and focus on building up a professional domestic league. It was hoped that this move would facilitate a wider development of the game and help find places for the involvement of a burgeoning population of players and coaches.

A task force was set up to develop plans for the new league, and Douglas Moore, who had been the coach of Singapore's 1994 Malaysian championship-winning side as well as the Singapore national football team, was brought in as the league's first Chief Executive.

The first S.League season was held in 1996. Eight teams were involved that year and the competition was split into two series. In each series, all eight teams played each other home and away. The table-topping teams from each of the two series then met each other in a season-ending play-off match to determine the champions. Geylang United won the first series and the Singapore Armed Forces Football Club (SAFFC) won the second. Geylang then beat SAFFC 2-1 in the final play-off to be crowned the first S.League champions. Geylang were captained in that first season by Singapore's best-known footballer Fandi Ahmad (who also captained Singapore's last Malaysia Cup-winning side in 1994). The following year, Fandi moved to SAFFC and won the S.League title with them (and later went on to become their coach).

The format of two series and a season-ending play-off was replaced in 1997 by a more traditional league format. Since its first season, the S.League has grown to involve 12 teams. There is no promotion and relegation system. The clubs involved are chosen by the FAS, based on their past record and quality of management and organisation. In 2003, in an attempt to generate more excitement, penalty shoot-outs were held after all drawn games, with the winners taking 2 league points and the losers 1 point. This idea was dropped in 2004.

To help promote the development of top young players in Singapore, a team known as the Young Lions was introduced to the S.League in 2003, made-up largely of the members of the Singapore national under-23 team. The Young Lions team, which continues to be part of the S.League, is under the direct control of the FAS and its squad only includes players aged below 23. (Foreign players are normally only recruited into the Young Lions squad if they could potentially change their nationality to Singaporean, and thus become eligible to play international football for Singapore at some point in the future.)

Five non-Singaporean teams have been involved in the S.League – Albirex Niigata FC (Singapore) (a satellite team of a top-level professional club in Japan), Sinchi FC (a team made up of players from China), and Sporting Afrique FC (made up of players of African origin), Liaoning Guangyuan FC (a satellite team of a top-level professional club in China), and Korean Super Reds FC (made up of players from South Korea). Sinchi participated in the league for three years, before withdrawing after the 2005 season for financial reasons. Sporting Afrique participated in the 2006 season, but the club was embroiled in a number of off-field controversies and was not invited to participate again in 2007. Albirex Niigata, Liaoning Guangyuan and Korean Super Reds continue to be involved.