Singapore Football Week to feature 26 events

The inaugural Singapore Football Week will see a total of 26 events taking place from July 22 to 29, Sport Singapore (SportSG) announced at a media briefing at the SportSG Auditorium yesterday.

The event was organised by SportSG in collaboration with 22 partners including the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), with the aim of encouraging more Singaporeans to play and watch football.

Set to be an annual affair, the event will coincide with the International Champions Cup (ICC) - Singapore will host one leg of the prestigious pre-season tournament until 2020.

FOOTBALL POWERHOUSES

This year's ICC will see football powerhouses Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan play at the National Stadium from July 25 to 29.

To cater to a wider audience during the Singapore Football Week, non-traditional football activities such as e-gaming, foosball and sports table football (more commonly known as Subbuteo) have been included along with the traditional football competitions.

SportSG chief executive Lim Teck Yin is confident that the local football community will support the programmes.

The 54-year-old said: "The football fraternity is a passionate bunch of people who want to chip in.

"We want to bring people together, and the Singapore Football Week is all about encouraging people to play."

"The next editions will become even better."

FAS president Lim Kia Tong, who was present at the briefing, praised SportSG's initiative and pledged to work alongside the local sports governing body to make the local football scene more dynamic.

He said: "This is an excellent idea coming from SportSG.

"We will work to increase the popularity (of football) at our local level in close partnership with SportSG with various activities during Football Week."