Lion City Sailors (Singapore)

Lion City Sailors FC is a professional football club from the island state of Singapore who were formed as the Police Sports Association in the mid 1940’s to organise football activities for its officers. They would later be known as Police FC and then Home United.

After winning the inaugural Presidents Cup in 1968, SA entered the National League in 1973, quickly winning promotion from Division Three in the process. 1980 was a tremendous year for the club as they lifted the Division Two title as well as the Boggars and President Cups 

In 1985 Police SA were crowned as national champions, which led to them becoming founder members of S League the following year as Police FC. In 1996 the club became Home United.

The name change reflected that fact that the team represented not only the Singapore Police Force, but also other Home Team Departments of the Singapore Ministry of Home Affairs such as the Singapore Civil Defence Force and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority.

‘The Protectors’ soon established themselves as a major force in Singapore football from their Bishan Stadium home ground. The S League was won in 1999 under head coach Ibrahim Awang before the Singapore Cup was paraded in the club’s trophy cabinet in 2000 and 2001.

 

This was after Robert Alberts had taken on the reins as Singapore Armed Forces and then Geylang United were defeated in the finals. Jason Withe had a spell in charge of the team prior to the arrival of Steve Darby who led the side to the League and Cup double in 2003, with Gelang United being seen off 2-1 in the cup final.

The team also ended the 2002 season in a league runners-up berth in what was an extremely successful period in which Thai players Sutee Suksomkit and Surachai Jaturapattarapong starred while Peres de Oliveira, Egmar Goncalves, and Indra Sahdan Daud all chipped in with goals aplenty.

Goncalves came up trumps again in 2004 as the side ended as league and cup runners-up with Tampines Rovers proving too strong after extra time in the knockout final. Home also reached the semi-finals of the AFC Cup where Syrian side Al-Jaish prevailed.

 

However, the cup was lifted in 2005 following a 3-2 win against Woodlands Wellington while Lebanese side Al-Nejmeh defeated Home in the quarter final of the AFC Cup. Darby moved on to be replaced by Zsolt Bűcs for a short spell, prior to the arrival of Vincent Subramaniam.

Old rivals Singapore Armed Forces pipped United to the league title in 2007 with PN Sivaji taking over as head coach before the appointment of Lee Lim-saeng in January 2010. The South Korean would go on to be a favourite and enjoy a four-year spell at the club.

A league runners-up place behind Tampines Rovers was compensated by a 1-0 cup final win against Albirex Niigata after extra time in 2011 as the pairing of Frédéric Mendy and Qiu Li put away the goals.

 

2013 again saw a second-place finish behind Tampines Rovers, and yet again the Singapore Cup was won, this time 4-1 against Tanjong Pagar United. Balestier Khalsa proved too strong in the 2014 final, defeating Home 3-1.

Philippe Aw led the side to the 2015 cup final, which was lost 2-1 to Albirex Niigata. Aidil Sharin Sahak became the new coach in August 2016, lasting two years in the post and taking the team to second place in the league behind Albirex Niigata in 2018, which was the inaugural season of the Singapore Premier League in which Rudy Khairullah starred.

Saswadimata Dasuki and then Radojko Avramović had spells as head coach prior to Aurelio Vidmar, the former captain of Australia, who was installed into the position in December 2019 ready for the 2020 season which saw big changes as the club changed their name to Lion City Sailors FC.

 

This was after the privatisation of the club after Singaporean billionaire Forrest Li purchased them. Bishan Stadium began a major refurbishment meaning the team decamped to Jalan Besar Stadium with the club colours changing from all red to blue and white.

A third-place finish was achieved with Song Ui-young and Stipe Plazibat scoring regularly. Kim Do-Hoon became head coach in May 2021, taking the club to their third league title a few months later. Captain, Hassan Sunny was outstanding in goal with Gabriel Quak assisting Plazibat up front.

Kim Shin-wook top scored for the side in 2022 who ended as league runners-up as Luka Lalic took over team affairs for the final couple of months of the season. The club returned to Bishan Stadium for the 2023 campaign in which Risto Vidaković came and went quickly from the position prior to Aleksandar Ranković being appointed in June 2023. 

Again the team ended in second position in the league.

Lion City Sailors FC will play in the Singapore Premier League in the 2024 season.

My visit

Wednesday 29th October 2014

It was a scorching morning in Singapore as I meandered around the island looking to visit the six clubs whose home grounds I wouldn’t catch a fixture on throughout the week, which included that of Home United, as Lion City Sailors were known as at the time.

After calling in at the home of Balestier Khalsa I elected to catch a bus from Toa Payoh Interchange rather than taking a train and then a long walk. The bus dropped me within a couple of hundred yards, just the other side of Bishan Road.

It didn’t look good for me getting inside if truth be told, and that would have been a real shame as it looked a magnificent stadium, close to the rail depot. I took some shots from outside over hedges and through fencing just in case, but eventually I found myself in near the Sports Centre.

The Main Stand was a tremendous structure with its seating deck towering over the athletics track. The far side had some open seating, with a couple of sections behind each curve. The view from the top of the stand was first class and negated any possible poor views caused by the track.

At the rear stood an impressive sports centre, with Home United’s offices and clubhouse as part of it. Over the road was a pristine swimming complex. Singapore was quickly teaching me the how community sports facilities should be. It offered me hope that Scarborough were going the right way forward with the Weaponness Sports Village development.

Despite the heat I walked past the newish small shopping mall to Bishan station ready for my next long train ride; this time in the direction of Yew Tee and Warriors FC.

Unfortunately owing to an IT disaster on my return to the UK, I lost the majority of my pictures from Singapore, so several images on this page have been downloaded from the internet.