User:LionCityCup
The Lion City Cup, organized by the Football Association of Singapore, is one of the oldest and most prestigious youth international football competitions. The tournament inspired FIFA to introduce the World Youth Under-17 and Under-19 Championships.
Founded in 1977 as the only Under-16 soccer tournament in the world, it had invited participation from youth teams of professional clubs such as Everton FC, England; Newcastle United FC, England; CR Flamengo, Brazil; SL Benfica, Portugal and Juventus FC, Italy. National youth teams from countries such as Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Australia, Taiwan and Hong Kong have also participated.
By playing against top club teams from the top 50 ranked countries in the world, the Lion City Cup exposes young Singaporean footballers to different styles of football, tougher opponents and challenging playing conditions. Lately, the Singapore national youth football team fielded two teams, the Under-16 and the Under-15s, to provide opportunities for more boys to gain such exposure. Fandi Ahmad, V. Sundramoorthy, Indra Sahdan and more recently Hazim Faiz Hassan were among the Singapore football stars whose professional football trajectories took off after playing for the Under-16 national squads.
Tournament Format
There are two stages, the group and knockout stage.
In the group stage, teams are pooled into groups of three. Each team plays a round-robin tournament within the group. The teams within a group are ranked by points--two points for a win; one, draw; zero, loss--and the top two teams advance to the knockout stage.
The knockout stage is a single-elimination tournament where teams play each other in one-off matches, with extra time and penalty shootouts used to decide the winner if necessary. The finals are played at the Jalan Besar Stadium, home of Singapore football.
A Tournament for Everyone
To keep the tournament affordable, concessionary prices for students, senior citizens, and bundle packages are sold at all AXS machines island-wide as well as at all Ticketbooth outlets. Singaporeans from all walks of life are encouraged to watch "The Beautiful Game" as played by world-class youths.
Organisation and Media Coverage
Red Card Pte Ltd and the Football Association of Singapore co-organises the Lion City Cuo; and the Singapore Sports Council promotes the tournament. StarHub, the official broadcast partner, screens live telecasts of the matches only on SuperSports Arena, which is a free sports channel for all StarHub TV customers. Canon Singapore has continually donated money to the Singapore teams by donating money, and held football and sports photography clinics for the Lion City Cup's fans in Singapore.