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Yesterday, the draw for the 2025 AFF Women's Championship took place. Singapore surprisingly withdrew their name right before the draw even though they were the team that qualified for the tournament (beat Timor Leste in the qualifying round).
This decision forced the organizers to "put out the fire" by bringing in Timor Leste, the team that lost to Singapore, to replace them. Timor Leste will be in Group B with Myanmar, Australia and the Philippines.
The Football Association of Singapore explained its decision: “The FAS has confirmed that the women’s national team will not participate in the ASEAN Women’s Championship, scheduled to take place from 6 to 19 August in Vietnam, as it will overlap with the AFC U-20 Women’s Championship qualifiers. The AFC event is scheduled from 2 to 10 August. This decision was taken after FAS carefully considered the priorities, player welfare and AFC’s preparations for the tournament.”
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This explanation seems quite confusing because the U20 team and the national team are completely different. Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines or Australia still operate the national team and the U20 team in parallel. However, Singapore is different. The source of female players in this island nation is limited, making it impossible for them to divide their strength into two arenas. Specifically, in the current Singapore women's team, more than 60% of the force is under the age of 20 (16/26 people).
Two months may not be enough time for them to build two teams in parallel. Therefore, Singapore decided to withdraw from the tournament. This is not the first time that this country has said no to AFF events. They decided not to participate in the 2025 AFC U19 Women's Championship, and Singapore also said no to the Southeast Asian U23 Championship from 2021 to now.
Source: https://tienphong.vn/lai-bo-giai-dong-nam-a-lien-doan-bong-da-singapore-noi-gi-post1749822.tpo
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