Singapore considers dropping out of SEA Games 33 football

The Singapore Olympic Council has just announced the preliminary list of athletes for the 33rd SEA Games. However, the list does not include members of the U22 team or the Singapore women's team. In addition, the men's and women's futsal teams are also not allowed to participate in the Games in Thailand.

This is a surprising move by the Lion Island. The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) believes that the Singapore Olympic Council should review the list and send football athletes to the 33rd SEA Games. FAS President Forrest Li emphasized: "There is still a chance (to send teams to compete in football). This is very important for the fans and the development of our young players."

On August 15, the Singapore Olympic Council will hear opinions from the National Sports Federations. After that, they will determine the list of athletes participating in the 33rd SEA Games.

Therefore, in the next week, FAS will certainly make moves to make the national sports governing body change and include football in the list of competitions for the Singapore sports delegation. If not, they will witness the first time since 1969 that Singapore men's football is absent from the SEA Games (formerly SEAP Games).

It must be admitted that in recent years, Singapore football has been lacking connection with the regional playground. After the 2022 Southeast Asian U23 tournament, where they lost 0-7 to Vietnam, Singapore withdrew the U23 team from the last two tournaments.

In the 2025 Southeast Asian Women's Championship currently taking place in Vietnam, Singapore also did not participate. The reason given by Singapore was that the regional championship overlapped with the Asian U20 qualifiers, and they could only send one representative. In the end, Timor Leste was the replacement team.