Players are usually selected from the Singapore Premier League team, Young Lions as the squad is composed mostly of players undergoing their National Service and also because of their time playing together in the same squad.
Singapore then played in the 2014 Asian Games where they were placed in Group C alongside Tajikistan U-23, Oman U-23 and Palestine U-23. Singapore conceded a late goal against Tajikistan U-23 in the first match losing 1–0 to them. Singapore U-23 then faced Oman U-23 where the team was down at 3–1 before Faris Ramli and Safuwan Baharudin scored the goal to equalise the match at 3–3. In the last match fixtures against Palestine U-23, the team won 2–1 with Shahfiq Ghani scoring a brace in the match. Singapore got 4 points in the group stage which would have seen the team qualified to the Round of 16 but Tajikistan U-23 scored a last minute goal against Oman U-23 which see them qualified to the knockout stages instead.
Controversial
Singapore under-22 has a disastrous performance at the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia. Not only the team failed to win a single match, the team were mauled 7–0 by arch-rivals Malaysia U-22 in their final match, and ended the campaign finishing in tenth place at the rock-bottom of the table ranking as the worst team at the tournament.
On 18 May 2023, Football Association of Singapore (FAS) announced that coach Philippe Aw has been granted a ‘leave of absence’ as the head coach of the Young Lions team in which a technical review of the SEA Games performance will subsequently take place after his return.
The poor performances of the Singapore U-23 team in at the SEA GAMES have triggered fans who vented their anger and frustrations on social media, with some calling for officials from the FAS to be axed and the time to look at the appointments at every level of Singapore football to ensure that the people of the right expertise are appointed for the right jobs.
Acting FAS president, Bernard Tan also added that until the review has been completed, the Singapore U-22 has decided not to send the team to the upcoming 2023 AFF U-23 Championship held in August and the Asian Games in Hangzhou that will be held in September. As FAS recalibrates its priority on two tournaments, the 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualification fixtures being held in Vietnam and the 2025 SEA Games. In the review, one of the recommendations was for the Young Lions to focus on the two above mentioned competitions and for all other tournaments to be regarded as developmental opportunities.
On 7 July 2023, FAS unveiled 10 recommendations to improve the country's performance at future SEA Games including giving key U-23 and U-22 players more game time and to approach the multisport event as a two-year project to allow the coach and team to develop over a longer period. The recommendations were formulated based on internal reports submitted by
FAS departments after the tournament, “objective" analytics, “subjective" feedback gathered by a SEA Games review committee which interviewed personnel involved in the Games, and discussions with individuals including from other countries' football associations. FAS noted that only eight players in the SEA Games squad were playing regularly in the 2023 Singapore Premier League season where the lack of game time possibly affected the ability of players, especially those not exposed to sufficient minutes, to cope with the tempo of the tournament, where a game is played every two to three days over the course of two days
On 12 July 2023, FAS has confirmed the departure of Philippe Aw as U-23 head coach. He was replaced by former national team player, Nazri Nasir who lead the squad during the 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualifiers. Additionally, Nazri, who is currently the Senior Singapore national team assistant coach, will also be assigned to the Young Lions team in the Singapore Premier League. This enables him to track the progress and oversee the development of the young footballers. Players will also have individual development plans to allow the coach to improve their abilities over the two years of preparation. The review panel observed that players arrived for pre games training with different levels of fitness and conditioning. A standard operating procedure will be drawn up to aim to deliver at least two warm-up matches prior to the tournaments. The FAS will also adjust the league scheduling to ensure the age-group players meet this requirement with a minimum of two weeks preparation for the priority tournaments while diets of the players will also be planned when the FAS has control of the meals which currently, only hydration is monitored, while players are advised on healthy eating.
Nazri have his provisional squad report for centralised training from 21 August 2023 in which FAS has made adjustments to the 2023 Singapore Premier League fixture calendar to allow the team to have uninterrupted 14-day preparation as they travelled to Thailand to play a couple of friendly before flying off to Vietnam for their 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualifiers. Eventually Singapore failed to qualify to the final tournament.
Players
Current squad
The following 23 players were selected for the upcoming 2024 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Asian Cup Qatar 2024 Qualifiers in September.[4]
Caps and goals updated as of 6 Sept 2023, after the match against Yemen.
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