Singapore, Sept. 25 -- Lion City Sailors have been pouring resources into youth development in recent months, first announcing a pledge of $1 million over four years for the club's football academy and then revealing a $10 million blueprint for its home.
The ambitions of the first privatised Singapore Premier League club were given a boost when their academy was awarded a one-star rating by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the first in the country to achieve the feat. The regional governing body has a maximum rating of three stars.
The academy's general manager Tan Li Yu called the AFC's endorsement "an honour" and said it was a "validation of the systems and processes" at the academy, which grooms players from the age of six to ...