Singapore will rejoin Malaysia’s football league in 2012, ending a 17-year hiatus from the Malaysia Cup, the most prestigious football tournament in the country.
The Singapore football association signed a memorandum of understanding with its Malaysian counterpart today and will take part in the professional Super League, FA Cup and Malaysia Cup — which it won in 1994 before parting ways to form its own professional league.
Singapore will enter a team made up of its national under-23 squad, five national players above the age of 23 and a quota of foreigners as allowed for within competition rules.
In return, Malaysia’s Harimau Muda, also made up mainly of under-23 players, will ply their trade in the island state’s S-League.
Under the four-year agreement, two other key initiatives were also mooted, which includes an increase in friendly matches between the national teams of the two countries, as well as the birth of a new annual tournament which will see the winners of both leagues do battle over two legs.
“The exchange of the young squads of both nations in competing in each other’s leagues and the meeting of champions from either side will bring back nostalgia of the Singapore and Malaysia sides playing each other in front of soccer fans,” FA of Malaysia (FAM) deputy president Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah said.
FAS president Zainudin Nordin also agreed that “there is always a special romance between Singapore and Malaysian football. The key points of this partnership cannot be achieved overnight, but these are positive developments and it’s a win-win situation for both parties.”
Singapore was one of the most dominant teams in the Malaysia Cup before it quit Malaysian football in a dispute over gate receipts.
It is still the second most successful team in the tournament’s 90-year history, winning the trophy 24 times.
The republic’s rivalry with Selangor, who have won the cup 32 times, makes up a key part of the tournament’s history.
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