Youth League big boost for kids

Singapore's most promising young footballers will now have more playing opportunities with the launch of the Puma Youth Champions League (YCL).

The initiative was announced by Singapore Premier League champions Lion City Sailors yesterday and is part of a bid to raise footballing standards here.

The inaugural edition will run from September to May and will feature the nation's top youth teams across six age groups, from Under-10 to U-16.

The organisers will invite teams to enter based on standards, performances and results in local youth leagues over the past few years.

Youth sides from Turf City Football Club, Anza Soccer, Singapore Sports School and Sport Singapore's ActiveSG programme are likely to be among those participating. The selection process will be fine-tuned in future, as the tournament and its participating teams develop.

Each age-group category will have six teams and the YCL will be played across two seasons: the first from September to December and the second from February to May. A champion of each age group will be crowned at the end of each season.

John Morris, the Sailors' head of commercial and tournament director of the YCL, said: "The club's new training facility (at Mattar Road) will allow us to more efficiently implement our holistic training programme, but it is equally important that we provide our trainees with age-group appropriate high-level competition regularly so they have the best possible conditions to develop their game."

In line with practices by European academies such as 15-time Dutch champions Feyenoord Rotterdam, a partner of the Sailors, age-group specific regulations will be implemented.

For example, the U-10 and U-11 competitions will be held in a 7v7 format, while the U-12 category will be contested in an 8v8 format.

Those for the U-13 to U-16 age groups will be staged as 11-a-side competitions.

"This is a great platform not only for players to perform, but also coaches and referees to test (themselves) and progress in their craft," said Razali Saad, programme director of Unleash The Roar!'s (UTR!) School Football Academies.

UTR is the national initiative to get Singapore to qualify for the 2034 World Cup.

Rae Peh, a central midfielder in the Sailors' elite development programme U-15 team, is looking forward to participating in the league.

The 13-year-old said: "Playing against the best teams every week will not only test our abilities, but also help us improve massively.

"We have the experience of playing many high-quality opponents on our recent training trip to Spain. Now we know where we stand as a team and as individuals, we know we've to keep improving."