SINGAPORE – The score at the Choa Chu Kang Stadium read 18-0 on May 4, when the Lion City Sailors women’s team notched the largest winning margin in the Deloitte Women’s Premier League (WPL) against Balestier Khalsa.

The rout saw four players – Nur Syazwani Ruzi, Nur Sarah Zu’risqha, Raeka Ee and Josephine Ang – bagging hat-tricks. With the victory, defending champions Sailors have made a perfect start to the season with five wins in as many matches and currently lead the nine-team WPL with 15 points, 32 goals scored and just one conceded.

In contrast, Balestier are at the foot of the table with no points and goals and 36 goals conceded from four games.

The lopsided result has sparked discussions in the local football fraternity on the state of the women’s game here and the lack of competitiveness in the WPL.

While some observers have called for talent to be more fairly distributed across clubs to level the playing field, others noted that such results are part of the learning curve for teams who are still finding their feet in the relaunched league.

Experts whom The Straits Times spoke to also noted that one-sided victories are not uncommon in women’s football around the world, as some teams may not have as much access to resources as others.

Balestier vice-chairman Darwin Jalil, who is also a Football Association of Singapore (FAS) council member, said the club axed their women’s team in 2017 but restarted it in 2022 when the WPL was relaunched. Moreover, the side had to rebuild at the start of the 2024 season as many players and former head coach Ratna Suffian departed for other clubs.

Now led by coach Stephen Rajah, they are still conducting trials for players.

Darwin said: “With the reset, we had put in place a philosophy of wanting to play possession-based football and a result like this is unfortunately part of the process. Of course, we can have the team just clear the ball away and we can then reduce the scoreline. But we have made it clear to the players that we want to cultivate the habit of players sticking to the philosophy, it’s the only way to learn.

“A few years ago, our youth teams were also garnering similar lopsided results but we went through a similar process, stuck to our guns and the results in the ongoing Singapore Youth League show us that we made the right decision.

“We will continue to encourage our women’s team to keep working hard.”

In ST’s Hard Tackle podcast episode on May 8, which was recorded prior to the 18-0 result, women’s footballer Sara Merican, former national captain Charmaine Lim and former national player Chris Yip-Au spoke about the disparity in playing standards in the WPL.

Yip-Au, 32, who is the Seychelles Football Federation’s head of women’s football and women’s national team coach, said: “Of course we do not want an imbalance of players in the league, especially like national players playing in Sailors or Albirex Niigata. Maybe if there is some way where we can of spread these players out like the Americans do (with the draft system), it creates a more even playing field, for the game to actually grow.”

Julie Teo, 61, chairwoman of the FAS women’s committee, said that this suggestion would need to be studied, though she added that she was not too concerned about the scoreline as the clubs are still “settling down” after the revamp.

She said: “It is unfortunate that there was such a big scoreline. Of course, it’s not good for the image of the league, but hopefully it is just a one-off thing. So far this season, there have not been any other alarming scores. Majority of the clubs are doing quite well and it is at a competitive level.”

Geylang International coach Ratna, 45, said: “It shows that the better teams in the league... have better funding and allowances, facilities and training and solid support from their clubs. The dynamics in women’s football is rapidly changing now. Gone are the days when you can assemble a team, give them jerseys and tell the players to play for passion.

“If we want to move forward and improve women’s football, these players must be rewarded with allowances, have access to treatment, (good) facilities and more. The sooner the clubs understand that this is the way to move forward with women’s football, the better we will get overall.”