The 23rd Canon Lion City Cup 2011 will mark its return as the platform for the brightest young talents from around the world to compete and display their skills against each other at the Jalan Besar Stadium.
Since the inaugural tournament in 1977, involving U-16 teams, the Lion City Cup has become one of the premier youth tournaments in the region, unearthing Singapore football stars such as Fandi Ahmad, V. Sundramoorthy Indra Sahdan and Hariss Harun.
This year’s edition will see world class club oppositions with the likes of Everton FC (England), Juventus FC (Italy), Benfica (Portugal) and CR Flamengo (Brazil). Representing Singapore will be the Under-15s, and the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic squad (NFA U-16), who won the bronze medal at last year’s inaugural games. These six teams will be battling it out for honours over the span of ten days.
Addressing the media at the Jalan Besar Stadium VIP Lounge, FAS President Zainudin Nordin said: “In line with the FAS Strategic Plan 2010-2015, the 23rd Canon Lion City Cup is organized to provide Singapore’s elite young talents with the competitive match exposure by playing against top club teams from the top 50 ranked countries in the world.
With our emphasis now on youth development, the tournament is also part of our long-term commitment to prepare our NFA U-15 & U-16 players who are now being groomed and developed to participate in the 2014 Asian Games, 2015 & 2017 SEA Games.”
The event will be co-organised by the Red Card and the Football Association of Singapore (FAS). The Red Card, a regional sports marketing agency, have been awarded the commercial rights holders by FAS for the event for the next three years (2011, 2012 & 2013).
Mr. Zainudin added: “We had a number of strong proposals this year and we are very proud to have an ex-Lion R.Sasikumar from Red Card to organise this year’s tournament with FAS.”
“In August last year, Singaporeans from all walks of life came out in full force to support our Cubs and I’m sure that the love affair will continue as they enjoy the world-class youth football action on this display at this year’s Lion City Cup.
“I would like to thank Red Card, Singapore Sport Council along with our sponsors, Canon and StarHub for their support to establish the Lion City Cup as the premier youth competition in this region. With the high level of quality from the foreign teams, this year’s competition will play its part in providing our young talents with the competitive and world class match exposure.”
Said R. Sasikumar, the Managing Director of The Red Card, and FIFA Match Agent Registered with the FAS, about the new look tournament, “We want to re-ignite the passion Singaporeans have for football – the same passion that filled the stands when our YOG boys beat Montenegro in their bronze medal match. We believe that the Lion City Cup is the perfect tournament to do so. Commercially, we feel that the project offers great value to our partners to be involved in the event. Our aim is to build a tournament that will eventually see the best youth teams in the world bring their style of football to our soil.”
Broadcast of all 10 matches of this year’s tournament will be televised ‘live’ by the tournament’s broadcast partners, StarHub on SuperSports Arena (StarHub TV Channel 201).
Ms Sandie Lee, StarHub’s Vice President of Content Services, said “StarHub is pleased to be the official broadcaster and co-sponsor for this year’s Lion City Cup. StarHub has always been a long-time supporter of local sports and we hope that by broadcasting these matches, more Singaporeans will come forward to support our local football scene. We are also excited for our boys to be able to play against world-class football clubs such as Everton and Juventus. We hope that the spirit for local sporting action will be imbibed in the football fans and that they will continue to cheer our local team on even as they take on the big guns.”
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