SINGAPORE – Singapore football fans can finally look forward to the commencement of the 2024-25 Singapore Premier League (SPL) season that will kick off on May 10.
The Football Association of Singapore on April 12 announced the fixtures for the new season in a revised calendar that will end in May 2025.
It will take place in a quadruple round-robin format with each of the nine teams playing 32 matches – 16 home and 16 away. The Singapore Cup, which will be played concurrently, will begin in January 2025 with the final in May.
Matches will be played primarily from Friday to Sunday, with kick-offs at 7.45pm and 6pm on weekdays and weekends respectively. As with previous seasons, every match will be broadcast live.
Two-time league champions Brunei DPMM will also return to their home ground at the Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium, meaning that local teams will experience a genuine away-day match experience again.
The former champions had made the Jalan Besar Stadium (JBS) their temporary home last season as their own stadium was undergoing renovation works.
While they regain home comfort, BG Tampines Rovers and Geylang International will lose theirs.
Both sides will play their home matches at JBS as Our Tampines Hub’s (OTH) pitch will be undergoing restoration works.
Last April, an SPL match between Geylang and Balestier Khalsa had to be postponed by a day and moved to JBS.
This was after the OTH pitch was found to be “unfit and unsafe for professional competition football.”
Geylang coach Noor Ali lamented the change but added that his squad had grown used to not being able to enjoy home advantage.
He pointed to how Geylang had lost their long-time home ground of Bedok Stadium before the 2019 SPL season, as local clubs were made to share stadiums as part of the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth’s sports facilities masterplan.
Noor said: “To us, it has become a norm. We have played matches in a few stadiums now and it is nothing new for us.
“We have to make do with it and make the best out of this situation. Home advantage has been something that had been taken away from us since we had to shift to OTH.”
Yet, the former Singapore international is looking forward to the season especially on the back of clubs bolstering their squads with quality foreign additions.
As announced previously, the new season will also see a revision in the foreign player quota with each club being able to register up to nine foreigners, including three Under-21 players.
However, clubs must field at least five local players on each matchday. The previous requirement for local clubs (excluding the Young Lions) to field at least one Under-23 Singaporean during the entire first half has also been removed.
Noor added: “It is going to be a long season but I think it will be a very interesting one.
“Every team has strengthened and with the exception of Tampines who have kept most of their squad, there are significant changes everywhere, especially with Albirex going local. Even the Young Lions have quality foreign players.”
The latest season, which is the 29th edition, will commence with the traditional curtain-raiser, the Community Shield match at JBS on May 4, which will be contested by SPL champions Albirex Niigata and Singapore Cup holders Lion City Sailors.
Albirex coach Kazuaki Yoshinaga is looking forward to the match.
He said: “This season, the club has changed to be a local team, so we are building the team with even more new players. The team is ready to play our best game against our opponents to claim the Community Shield.”
