French club Etoile FC has made history tonight by winning the S.League, Singapore’s domestic football league, and the only professional sports league on the island.
Etoile wrapped up the title when they beat Albirex Niigata 4-2 at Jurong East Stadium. Tampines Rovers FC could have caught Etoile if they had lost but as it turned out, their 4-1 victory over Balestier Khalsa was rendered moot.
Etoile have done what another foreign club, DPMM FC of Brunei, almost did in 2009. Having won the League Cup, DPMM were doing well in the S.League before they got banned with five games to go. Their governing body, the Football Federation of Brunei Darussalam, got banned by FIFA because of government interference and as a consequence, they were banned from taking further part.
The S.League introduced the first foreign club in 2003. Since then, nine clubs in all have played in the S.League but only Albirex Niigata have stayed since they entered in 2004. The rest were not invited back for various reasons, including match-fixing.
They have been calls for the introduction of relegation and promotion to inject more excitement into the league. The Football Association of Singapore have indicated they are working on that with the National Football League, the amateur tier just below the S.League.
Football fans have not embraced the league in recent years. Attendances are now only in the hundreds, a far cry from the thousands who showed up in the early years of the S.League.
The loss over the years of Tanjong Pagar FC, Jurong FC and Sembawang Rangers FC — clubs with ties with their respective communities — have also not helped the S.League.
The internationalisation of the S.League remains controversial and some will see in the arguments about it an echo of the larger political conversation regarding foreign talent in Singapore.
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i was happy that Etoile won. Their football was much better, otherwise, Beijing Guoan would be lifting the trophy rite?
Hope their victory will attract more foreign teams and players here