2024-2025 Singapore Premier league season to kick off from 4 May

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The wait is over. The 2024-2025 Singapore Premier League (SPL) season will officially kick off from 4 May 2024.

According to a release from the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), defending champions Albirex Niigata will face the Singapore Cup holders Lion City Sailors (LCS) in the Community Shield – the curtain raiser to the 29th domestic league season.

3 March 2024 – Albirex Niigata Singapore beat the Lion City Sailors 3-1 in a pre-season friendly game at the Jalan Besar Stadium ahead of the new 2024 SPL season (Photo by Harman Poh)

Season proper will then start a week later on 10 May, with the first round double header with Hougang United taking on LCS while Balestier Khalsa host Geylang International. There will be 4 rounds of fixtures over 36 matchdays until the season concludes in 25 May 2025.

Football calendar change

The SPL calendar is undergoing a two-year transition process, and these domestic variations are in
response to changes in Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Club Competitions and potential FIFA
International Calendar amendments.

Subsequently, the 2025-2026 SPL season will align with AFC Club Competitions’ calendar and will commence in August 2025 till May 2026.

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Albirex Niigata (S) coach Kazuaki Yoshinaga is looking forward to the match and views it as an
opportunity for his new-look side to give a good account of themselves saying: “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.”

His views were echoed by Sailors Head Coach Aleksandar Ranković who has been preparing his own
team with a series of friendlies against high-quality opponents. “I’m satisfied with our preparations so
far, including two tough encounters against JDT (Johor Darul Ta’zim). The new boys have gelled well
with the squad and we’re all looking forward to a good season together.”

Mid-season breaks

In keeping with commitments to several competitions taking place during the footballing calendar,
there will be several breaks implemented during the league season. The first in-season break will take
place after the third match day as the Men’s National Team start their preparations for their final two
2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against South Korea and Thailand in June.

21 March 2024 – Singapore played out a 2-2 draw against China at the National Stadium on their most recent FIFA World Cup Qualifier game (Photo by Lup Yun)

The month of August will see another break for the return of the Sultan of Selangor Cup that was last held in 2019. The SPL season will take a pause as the Men’s National team participates in the ASEAN Mitsubishi Electric Cup 2024 – a major tournament in the ASEAN footballing calendar, that will be held from 23 November till 21 December.

Matches will be played primarily between Friday and Sunday, with weekend kick-offs set to be at 6
p.m. As with previous seasons, every match will be broadcast LIVE via Singtel TV and StarHub TV as
well as live streamed online via Mediacorp’s meWATCH platform and the SPL YouTube channel.