Warriors Football Club was a professional football club based in Choa Chu Kang, Singapore, that played in the Singapore Premier League, the top division of football in Singapore. Before changing their name on 20 January 2013, they were known as Singapore Armed Forces Football Club (SAFFC). Despite their name back then, not all players from the team came from the Armed Forces.
The club's original choice of mascot was a wolf, later changed to a rhinoceros, which represents discipline, spirit, courage and teamwork. Warriors have been the most successful club in the history Singapore, having won the league title a record 9 times in 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2014.
History 1975–1995 The Singapore Armed Forces Sports Association (SAFSA) football team was formed in 1975 to provide talented footballers serving National Service with opportunities to play competitive football. That year, they won the President's Cup, a feat that they repeated in 1978, when they also captured the National Football League title to complete double. Their Under-19 team won the national Under-19 title in 1979, 1980 and 1983, while the 1981 season of the National Football League saw the SAFSA emerge as unbeaten champions. The President's Cup was won by them again in 1984 and 1986, the latter time as part of a second double, as they also won the National Football League on goal difference. In 1990, the Pools Cup went to the SAFSA and their convincing displays led to their selection as one of eight clubs to compete in the newly formed S.League.Malathi Das and Palakrishnan (1996), "S.League: the kick-off", Singapore Professional Football League Pte Ltd, p. 38
1996–2005 The club than revamp it named to Singapore Armed Forces Football Club (SAFFC) and also adopt a new mascot as in its club logo where they joined the inaugural S.League in 1996. The reserve team which still keep its old name and old logo also resulted in the withdrawal of SAFSA from the National Football League. SAFSA would not participate in Singaporean football leagues again until 1999, when they rejoined the league. SAFFC than finished second in 1996 in its debut season where they signed 5 Croatian players Ivica Raguž, Jure Ereš, Velimir Crljen, Davor Mioč and Goran Grubesic. With Grubesic leaving the club at the end of the 1996 season, SAFFC continued with 4 of the remaining foreigners where the club went on to win back-to-back S.League title in 1997 and 1998.
After retiring from football, club captain Fandi Ahmad took over from Mladen Pralija as the club head coach in 1999 where he guided them to win the S.League title in 2000 and 2002.
Three coaches were at the reins during this period, each lasting only one season. SAFFC finished second in 2005 but otherwise outside the top two.
2006–2012
Singaporean Richard Bok took over as SAFFC's head coach in 2006 and led them to four consecutive league championships from 2006 to 2009.
In 2008, SAFFC became the first Singaporean club to achieve a back-to-back domestic double, after winning both the S.League and the Singapore Cup in 2007 and 2008.
AFC Champions League debut In 2009, SAFFC qualified for the AFC Champions League by defeating Thailand champions PEA and PSMS Medan of Indonesia in the Eastern zone play-offs, becoming Singapore's first-ever representative at the highest club competition in Asia.
SAFFC were drawn in a group with J.League champions Kashima Antlers, K League champions Suwon Samsung Bluewings and Chinese Super League runners-up Shanghai Shenhua. They lost all of their matches, except for a 1–1 draw against Shanghai Shenhua at home.
In 2010, SAFFC qualified for their second consecutive AFC Champions League by registering a 3–0 home win against Sriwijaya of Indonesia and defeated Muangthong United of Thailand in the Eastern zone play-off final, again at home. Against Henan Jianye of China in the group stage, they drew in the two teams' first encounter and won the return leg 2–1 in Singapore, finishing third in a group that also contained familiar rivals Suwon Samsung Bluewings and former champions Gamba Osaka.
2013–2019 On 20 January 2013, SAFFC announced that they had changed their name to Warriors Football Club ahead of the 2013 S.League season.
Englishmen Alex Weaver, in his first full season as coach of Warriors FC, clinched the 2014 S.League title on the last day of the competition for the Warriors. With DPMM of Brunei leading the table until the last day, the Warriors scored a 1–0 win over Albirex Niigata Singapore and received a favour from Tampines Rovers, who beat DPMM 2–1 to hand Warriors their first title in 5 years and their 9th title in the league's 19-year history.
However, good times did not last for the Warriors. In November 2019, the team were brought to court and charged with 107 counts of not paying salaries for their staff. In total, they failed to pay more than S$350,000 in salaries to about 30 employees, including players, coaches and supporting staff.
2 days after the incident was reported, ST reported that there were 2 parties that were interested to take over Warriors FC.
On 31 December 2019, the FAS had instructed the Warriors to sit out the 2020 Singapore Premier League season due to their financial and legal issues. They applied to return to the Singapore Premier League and Singapore Cup competitions for 2021 to no avail.
Stadium The Warriors were initially based at the Jurong Stadium until 2000, before permanetely moving to the 4,268 capacity Choa Chu Kang Stadium in 2001.
Permanently sealed success into history at Choa Chu Kang Stadium
The stadium has become familiar for its elegant and soaring curved white steel roof, with supporting pylons, that covers the main grandstand. The football pitch itself consists of a self-watering "cell-system" turf pitch installation, supplied from Switzerland and approved by FIFA for international competition. The club has won 6 League titles during their time here.
Before the 2015 SEA Games commenced, they had to vacate Choa Chu Kang Stadium and instead played their home matches at the Woodlands Stadium for the 2015 season instead.
Seasons SeasonName ChangedLeaguePos.PWDLGSGAPtsSingapore CupLeague Cup 1996-1 Singapore Armed ForcesS.League 4th 14 5 3 6 27 25 18 1996-21st 14 9 5 0 32 14 32 19971st 16 12 1 3 42 11 37 19981st 20 14 4 2 46 17 46Runners-up 19992nd 22 14 7 1 63 24 49Winners 20001st 22 16 4 2 53 15 52Runners-up 20012nd 33 24 2 7 101 46 74Third place 20021st 33 26 6 1 104 37 84 Quarter-finals 20033rd 33 20 2–5 6 68 37 69 Group stage 2004 4th 27 14 3 10 45 48 45 Quarter-finals 20052nd 27 15 7 5 54 41 52 Semi-finals 20061st 30 20 8 2 71 36 68 Quarter-finals 20071st 33 25 4 4 95 38 79WinnersWithdrew 20081st 33 24 5 4 85 34 77Winners Quarter-finals 20091st 30 22 1 7 73 31 67 Round of 16Runners-up 2010 4th 33 16 5 12 56 41 53 Round of 16 Quarter-finals 20113rd 33 21 3 9 74 39 66 Quarter-finals Quarter-finals 2012 7th 24 9 5 10 43 41 32Winners Semi-finals 2013 Warriors 7th 27 9 8 10 38 38 35 Preliminary Group stage 20141st 27 16 5 6 53 35 53 Preliminary Group stage 2015 5th 27 11 4 12 40 51 37 Quarter-finals Group stage 2016 7th 24 7 7 10 39 39 28 Preliminary Group stage 2017 5th 24 9 7 8 33 36 34 PreliminaryRunners-up 2018 Singapore Premier League 5th 24 7 7 10 32 35 28 Quarter-finals2019 7th 246513405622Runners-up
The 1996 season of the S.League was split into two series. Tiger Beer Series winners Geylang United defeated Pioneer Series winners Singapore Armed Forces in the championship play-off to clinch the S.League title. 2003 saw the introduction of penalty shoot-outs if a match ended in a draw in regular time. Winners of penalty shoot-outs won two points instead of one.
Performance in AFC competitions
AFC Champions League: 3 appearances 2009: Group stage 2010: Group stage 2015: Second qualifying round Asian Club Championship: 3 appearances 1999: First round 2000: Second round 2002: First round AFC Cup: 4 appearances 2007: Quarter-finals 2008: Quarter-finals 2013: Group stage 2015: Group stage AFC Cup Winners Cup: 2 appearances 1998: Second round 2001: First round
Personal awards
Domestic
League Player of the Year Ivica Raguž (1996) Mirko Grabovac (2000) Therdsak Chaiman (2002) Aleksandar Đurić (2007, 2008) Mislav Karoglan (2011) Hassan Sunny (2014) League Young Player of the Year Nicolás Vélez (2014) League Coach of the Year Jita Singh (1998) Fandi Ahmad (2000) Richard Bok (2006, 2007, 2009) League Top Scorer Jure Ereš (1996) Mirko Grabovac (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002) Aleksandar Đurić (2007, 2008, 2009) Mislav Karoglan (2011) League Golden Gloves Hassan Sunny (2009)
Awards
Player of the Year Award SeasonName19962000200220072008Aleksandar Đurić20112014Hassan Sunny
Top scorers Season NameGoals1996 281999 Mirko Grabovac232000 Mirko Grabovac192001 Mirko Grabovac392002Mirko Grabovac342007Aleksandar Đurić372008Aleksandar Đurić282009Aleksandar Đurić282011 Mislav Karoglan33 * Mirko Grabovac was naturalised from 2002 until he renounced his Singaporean citizenship in 2008.
* Aleksandar Đurić was naturalised since 2007.
Honours
League Singapore Premier League (record) Champions (9): 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2014 Runners-up (4): 1996, 1999, 2001, 2005
Cup Singapore Cup Champions (4): 1999, 2007, 2008, 2012 Runners-up (3): 1998, 2000, 2019 Singapore Community Shield Champions (3): 2008, 2010, 2015 Runners-up (1): 2013 President's Cup Champions (3): 1975, 1984, 1986
Reserve Singapore FA Cup (record) Champions (4): 1997, 2006, 2008, 2017 Singapore League Cup Runners-up (2): 2009, 2017
Records and statistics
Top 10 all-time appearances RankPlayerYearsClub appearances1 Rezal Hassan1996–2004, 2010–20133122 Daniel Bennett2002, 2003–2004
2007–20162343 Shahril Jantan2002–2003 2006–20121674 Zulfadli Zainal Abidin2009, 2011–2014
2016–20171565 Hafiz Osman2003–2011 2016–20171536 Therdsak Chaiman2002, 2005–20091457 Shaiful Esah2005–2011 2016–20171318 Mustaqim Manzur2005–20111279 Marin Vidošević2012–201511210 Emmeric Ong2015–2019111
Top 10 all-time scorers RankNameClub AppearancesTotal goals1 Therdsak Chaiman145742 Mislav Karoglan98663 Aleksandar Đurić74574 Jonathan Béhé75505 Fazrul Nawaz94436 Nicolás Vélez51307 John Wilkinson99258 Miroslav Pejić52199 Park Tae-won6117 Indra Sahdan Daud58
Biggest Wins: 9–0 vs Sembawang Rangers (On 15 June 2002) Heaviest Defeats: 8–1 vs Home United (On 18 August 2004) Youngest Goal scorers: Marijan Šuto ~ 19 years 7 months 3 days old (On 5 May 2016 vs DPMM) Oldest Goal scorers: Aleksandar Đurić ~ 39 years 2 months 4 days old (On 16 October 2009 vs Sengkang Punggol) Youngest ever debutant: Danial Zulkifli ~ 17 years 2 months 6 days old (On 25 July 2016 vs Geylang International)
Former managers +ManagerCareerAchievements Hussein Aljunied7 March 1983 – 31 December 1988– 1984, 1986 President's Cup Ivan Raznevich1 January 1996 – 11 June 1996 Vincent Subramaniam11 June 1996 – 31 December 1998– 1997, 1998 S.League Mladen Pralija1 January 1999 – 30 November 1999– 1999 Singapore Cup Fandi Ahmad1 January 2000 – 30 November 2003– 2000, 2002 S.League Jim Shoulder1 December 2003 – 30 November 2004 Kim Poulsen1 January 2005 – 31 October 2005 Peter Butler1 January 2006 – 9 May 2006 Richard Bok9 May 2006 – 31 December 2012– 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 S.League – 2007, 2008, 2012 Singapore Cup – 2008, 2010 Singapore Community Shield As Warriors Vengadasalam Selvaraj1 January 2013 – 12 June 2013 Alex Weaver12 June 2013 – 24 October 2015– 2014 S.League – 2015 Singapore Charity Shield Razif Onn26 October 31 – 1 December 2015 Karim Bencherifa1 December 2015 – 6 January 2016 Jörg Steinebrunner6 January 2016 – 14 May 2016 Razif Onn (2)14 May 2016 – 1 January 2018 Mirko Grabovac15 January 2018 – 1 November 2018 Azlan Alipah1 January 2019 – 31 December 2019
References
External links
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