{"id":45874,"date":"2026-04-20T06:21:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T22:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=45874"},"modified":"2026-04-20T06:21:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T22:21:36","slug":"singapores-professional-football-league-has-survived-30-years-what-will-the-future-hold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=45874","title":{"rendered":"Singapore&#8217;s professional football league has survived 30 years \u2013 what will the future hold?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>For clubs like Geylang and Tanjong Pagar United, the same diehard regulars keep showing up.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I still see the same abang, same uncles still in the stands,&#8221; said Noor Ali, using the Malay term for a brother.<\/p>\n<p>Youth coach and former striker Indra Sahdan, now at Tanjong Pagar, said loyal supporters remain. But attracting new ones is the challenge, added Noor Ali.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s very hard (for the new fans) to buy in right now. A lot of effort has been put in but even if you give free tickets, they still don&#8217;t come.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span>Football Association of Singapore (FAS)<\/span> general secretary Badri Ghent said the league must adapt to &#8220;global consumption trends&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Match day attendance is just one factor that we look at, and it&#8217;s always something that we want to improve. But at the same time, when you look at consumption trends &#8230; some just<strong> <\/strong>maybe will watch match highlights, they are invested, they are in the know of things, but they may not want to watch games (in person),&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The responsibility is on the FAS and on the club not just to serve the existing community and the existing audience, but to expand that base as well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The association is working with clubs to improve the match day experience, and is investing in broadcast, Badri added.<\/p>\n<p>FAS said stadium attendance has remained stable while total league consumption has expanded significantly \u2013 driven by a 28 per cent rise in average YouTube viewership for SPL and Singapore Cup matches, and a 24 per cent increase on meWATCH from the 2023 to the 2024\/25 season.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Fan engagement with the Singapore Premier League is increasingly happening off-site, reflecting broader shifts toward flexible, on-demand viewing,&#8221; FAS said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.channelnewsasia.com\/sport\/sleague-singapore-premier-league-30-years-football-6058441\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For clubs like Geylang and Tanjong Pagar United, the same diehard regulars keep showing up. &#8220;I still see the same abang, same uncles still in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}