SINGAPORE: Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich have entered into a strategic partnership with the Singapore Sports Council (SportSG), the governing body of sport in the South East Asian country, which will involve the club’s flagship international youth tournament series ‘FC Bayern Youth Cup’ alongside with the club’s coaches exchange and education programs.
“Football is becoming more and more popular in Singapore, and we’re proud to cooperate with SportSG. An extensive exchange of knowledge and our continuous support of the development of youth football in Singapore is the focus of the partnership,” Bayern Munich director Jörg Wacker stated.
Emphasising the aim of the academy, SportSG CEO Lim Teck Yin said: “More than providing affordable football programmes for children and youth, we pride ourselves in enhancing the quality of our programmes. We partner like-minded clubs that bring excitement and excellence to our participants. We are very happy to have a famous global brand in football, FC Bayern, as long-term partner to enrich our existing programmes. There is a lot to learn from them with their long-standing record of producing well-rounded players. Their expertise will definitely help to inspire upcoming talents, encourage more players to train seriously and I hope that we will see sustained and increased interest in the sport over the years.”
The German record champions have been active in Asia for a long time, staging youth initiatives and fan events, and communicating with fans and followers on numerous digital channels. By adding this youth partnership in Singapore, FC Bayern has increased its number of football schools in Asia to six (Thailand, Japan and three in China) and continues to strengthen youth football development in the continent.
In addition, the men’s senior team has played a number of matches in China in recent years and two matches in Singapore in 2017.
Singapore is an island city-state in Southeast Asia with an estimated population of 5.8 million people. It is a global hub and has been recognised as the world’s smartest city.
SportSG is responsible for developing a holistic sports culture for the country to ensure that people live better through sport. Last year, it announced a long-term partnership with adidas, which is also a main partner and shareholder of FC Bayern.
As part of the football initiatives of SportSG, the ActiveSG Football Academy was launched on 2 April 2016. At that time, it had 312 participants aged six to 12 years and five locations. Since then, the academy has grown rapidly in size and boasts a wider demographic of approximately 2,000 players aged 3-18 years currently training up to three times a week at 10 satellite centres island-wide.
