Country InFo

General Information

• FIFA Trigramme: SIN
• Country: Singapore
• Country (official name): Republic of Singapore
• Continent: Asia
• Capital: Singapore
• Major cities: Serangoon, Jurong, Nee Soon
• Currency: Singapore dollar
• Official languages: Chinese, Malay, English, Tamil
• Motto: Onward Singapore (Majulah Singapore).

Geographic Information

• Surface area: 692 km²
• Highest point: Bukit Timah 166 m.
• Neighbouring countries: None
• Neighbouring seas and oceans: South China Sea

Population

• Population (in millions): 4.61
• GDP per inhabitant (in US dollars): 24,000
• Density (inhabitants per km2):
• Average age (in years): 34.5
• Life expectancy at birth (in years): 80.42

Internet

• Internet code: .sg
• Number of internet users: 2.31 million (2002)

Big Count

All Players	197,003
Registered players	10,003
Unregistered Players	187,000
Clubs	54
Officials	1,516

The Singapore national football team is the national football (soccer) team of Singapore. The team comes under the organisation of the Football Association of Singapore (FAS).

To date, the most significant successes of the team have come in the regional ASEAN Football Championship (formerly known as the ‘Tiger Cup’), which Singapore has won three times in 1998, 2005 and 2007. In 1998, Singapore beat Vietnam 1-0 in the final to capture the country’s first major international football title. In the 2004-5 competition, Singapore defeated Indonesia in a two-leg final 5-2 on aggregate. Singapore successfully retained the trophy in 2007, beating Thailand 3-2 on aggregate in the final.

Although Singapore is widely regarded as a minnow in the international footballing arena, the national team has ground out quite a few upset results and have made it hard for many away teams in recent years. In the 2007 Asian Cup qualifiers, for example, Singapore became the only team to beat Iraq enroute to their Asian Cup winning campaign. Singapore and also drew with China 0-0 at home in 2006. China also narrowly escaped with a 1-0 victory in Tianjin thanks to a last minute penalty. Japan, Uruguay, Denmark and Saudi Arabia have also come away with narrow 2-1 wins in recent times. In September 2007, Singapore almost took the scalp of Gulf Cup champions, UAE but a late equaliser prevented a win for the Lions. In March 2008, Australia became the latest victim when they failed to beat Singapore when the game ended in a goalless draw.

In the FIFA World Rankings, Singapore is currently the number 3 ranked Southeast Asian team behind Thailand and the number 20 in Asia (as of April 2008). Singapore was tagged as the Asian Football Confederation’s ‘Mover of the Year’ in 2005.

In January 2007, Singapore achieved a national record 11-0 win against Laos in an ASEAN Football Championship match. Mohd Noh Alam Shah scored 7 goals in the match.

Singapore’s main rival on the international stage is their geographical neighbour, Malaysia, and past matches between these two teams have produced much drama.

All of the players in the Singapore national football team currently play for club teams in Singapore’s top professional league, the S.League.

In recent years, Singapore has included several naturalised citizens in its team. Notable foreign-born citizens who have played for Singapore include Egmar Goncalves from Brazil; Mirko Grabovac from Croatia and Itimi Dickson from Nigeria. The current national team also consists of foreign-born citizens such as Daniel Bennett and John Wilkinson from England; Qiu Li and Shi Jiayi from China; Mustafic Fahrudin from Serbia; Precious Emuejeraye and Agu Casmir from Nigeria; and the Bosnian-born former Australian Aleksander Duric.

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