The 2021 Singapore Premier League (also known as the AIA Singapore Premier League due to sponsorship reasons) was the 4th season of the Singapore Premier League, the top-flight Singaporean professional league for association football clubs, since its rebranding in 2018.^[1]

The champions of the 2021 Singapore Premier League, Lion City Sailors, qualified for the AFC Champions League group stage automatically. The season began on 13 March and ended on 10 October. In the first part of the season, all matches were played behind closed doors in light of the COVID-19 situation.

Format

The following key changes were made to the rules since the 2020 season:^[2]

1. Local SPL clubs are required to have a minimum of six U-23 players for a squad size of 19 to 25 players; this increases to seven (squad size 26), eight (27) and nine (28).

New rules for 2021:

1. All SPL teams will play each other thrice.
2. Each team is able to register up to 25 players in their squad, an reduction of 3 players as compared from 2020.
3. From 2021, Albirex is allowed to sign a maximum of 2 overage Singaporean players.^[3] As in 2019 and 2020, Albirex must have two Singaporeans in their starting lineup for each game.
4. Young Lions and Lion City Sailors Football Club to play their home games at Jalan Besar Stadium while Balestier Khalsa will play at Toa Payoh Stadium. Bishan Stadium is under renovation till end of season. Other stadiums used are: (1) Our Tampines Hub (Tampines Rovers and Geylang International), Hougang Stadium (Hougang United) and (3) Jurong East Stadium (Albirex Niigata and Tanjong Pagar United).
5. Clubs will be equipped with Global Positioning Systems (GPS) devices – among other performance and tracking gear. Value of this sponsorship is worth around $620,000.^[4]
6. SPL clubs are now allowed to register a maximum of four foreign players with no age restrictions, of whom at least one shall be of the nationality of an AFC Member Association (Asian). A maximum of four foreign players may be named or fielded in any one match.^[5]
7. Local SPL clubs, excluding Albirex Niigata (S) and Young Lions, are required to have a minimum of six local U-23 players (born on or after 1 January 1998) for a squad size of 18 (minimum) to 25 (maximum) players. At least eight local U-30 players (born on or after 1 January 1991) have to be registered as well.
8. Players shall be allocated jersey numbers 1 to 40. Jersey numbers become available for allocation to new members after a player ceases to play for a club.^[6]
9. 2019 champions, DPMM FC, will continue to sit out of the competition due to the restriction imposed by the Brunei Government.
10. 2021 Singapore Cup is slated to commence in September 2021. The mandatory fielding of Under-23 local players for participating clubs shall not apply for matches in the 2021 Singapore Cup as to allow the National Under-22 team to have adequate centralised preparations and subsequent participation for this year's AFC Under-23 Qualifiers and the SEA Games.
11. 1st transfer window: 1 January 2021 to 20 March 2021, 2nd transfer window: 17 May 2021 to 13 June 2021

Teams

A total of 8 teams competed in the league. Albirex Niigata (S) from Japan was the only foreign team invited.

Stadiums and locations

Albirex (S)
Tanjong Pagar

Balestier Khalsa

Geylang International
Tampines Rovers

Hougang Utd

Young
Lions
Lion City Sailors

Locations of the 2018 Singapore Premier League teams from Singapore

Image	Team	Stadium	Capacity
	Albirex Niigata (S) Tanjong Pagar United	Jurong East Stadium	2,700
	Balestier Khalsa	Toa Payoh Stadium	3,800
	Hougang United	Hougang Stadium	3,800
	Lion City Sailors Young Lions	Jalan Besar Stadium	6,000
	Tampines Rovers Geylang International	Our Tampines Hub	5,000

Personnel and sponsors

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Head coach	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Main Shirt sponsor	Other shirt sponsors
Albirex Niigata (S)	Keiji Shigetomi	Kazuki Hashioka Takahiro Tezuka (VC) Ryoya Tanigushi (VC) Fairoz Hasan (VC)	Mizuno	Canon	Kirin Kubota Reeracoen EnglishCentral Lensmode Gain City Nippon Medical Care Fitogether Namics Denka SMBC ACCEA Singapore JTB NSG JPLUS+ Daiho Group With You Global Creations SD Aircon
Balestier Khalsa	Marko Kraljević	Fadli Kamis Kristijan Krajcek (VC)	Adidas	Jeep	Weston Corporation Project Vaults StarBalm PSB Academy
Geylang International	Mohd Noor Ali	Yuki Ichikawa Darren Teh (VC)	FBT	Epson[7]	Aris Studio 23 Joydom Engineering My Protein Singapore Steel Industries Springleaf Prata Place Fightzone TRUE Fitness
Hougang United	Clement Teo	Fabian Kwok Lionel Tan (VC) Nazrul Nazari (VC) Ridhuan Barudin (VC)	Warrix		SportCenter by Zup Cafe Football (CF) The Arena
Lion City Sailors	Kim Do-hoon[8]	Hassan Sunny Shahdan Sulaiman (VC)	Puma	SEA[9]	Shopee Garena
Tampines Rovers	Gavin Lee[10]	Yasir Hanapi Daniel Bennett (VC) Syazwan Buhari (VC)	Mizuno	ANA Courier Express [11]	StarBalm The Black Hole Group My Protein Singapore Canadian 2 for 1 Pizza
Tanjong Pagar United	Hasrin Jailani	Faritz Abdul Hameed Delwinder Singh (VC)	Ad hoc Apparel	Tokyo Century	Samtrade Academy StarBalm
Young Lions	Philippe Aw[12]	Danish Irfan Syahrul Sazali (VC)	Nike		Catapult

Coaching changes

Team	Outgoing Head Coach	Manner of Departure	Date of Vacancy	Position in table	Incoming Head Coach	Date of appointment
Young Lions	Nazri Nasir	Rested	15 January 2021	Pre-Season	Philippe Aw[12]	15 January 2021
Lion City Sailors	Aurelio Vidmar	Resigned [13]	30 April 2021	2nd	Robin Chitrakar (interim) [14]	1 May 2021
Lion City Sailors	Robin Chitrakar (interim) [14]	NA	18 May 2021	2nd	Kim Do-hoon[15]	18 May 2021

Foreign Players

Singapore Premier League clubs can sign a maximum of four foreign players in the 2021 season, up from three as compared to 2019.^[16] However, one of them has to be 21 years old or younger on 1 January 2021 (Or at the age of registration).

Albirex Niigata can sign up unlimited number of Singaporean players for the new season. Only 2 local player above 23 years old is allowed.^[17]

Players name in bold indicates the player was registered during the mid-season transfer window.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	AFC Player	SG U-23 Player 1 U-21 Player	Former Players
Albirex Niigata (S)	Hyrulnizam Juma'at[18]	Fairoz Hassan[3]	Ong Yu En[19]	Fikri Junaidi[20]	Nicky Singh[21]	Nathanael Chin[22]
	Junki Yoshimura[23]	Sunny Tia[24]	Kenji Austin[25]	Ameer Maricar[25]	Irsyad Azarudin[26]
	Hilman Norhisam [27]	Muhamad Ali Manaf[25]
Balestier Khalsa	Kristijan Krajcek[28]	Šime Žužul[28]	Ensar Brunčević[29]	Shuhei Hoshino[30]	Yann Weishaupt[31]
Geylang International	Matheus Moresche[32]	Barry Maguire[33]	Yuki Ichikawa[34]	Danny Kim [35]		Sylvano Comvalius[36][37]
Hougang United	Gilberto Fortunato[38]	Maksat Dzhakybaliev[39]	Tomoyuki Doi[40]	Kaishu Yamazaki[41]
Lion City Sailors	Diego Lopes[42]	Jorge Fellipe[43]	Stipe Plazibat[44]			Song Ui-young[45] Note 2
Tampines Rovers	Zehrudin Mehmedović[39]	Boris Kopitović[39]	Armin Bosnjak[46]	Kyoga Nakamura[39]
Tanjong Pagar United	Luiz Júnior[39]	Blake Ricciuto[47]	Reo Nishiguchi[48]	Shodai Nishikawa[49]

Note 1: From 2021, Albirex, a Japanese club, is allowed to sign a maximum of 2 Singaporean players above the age of 23.

Note 2: Song Ui-Young is granted Singapore citizenship on 21 August 2021. ^[50]

Results

League table

Fixtures and results

Clubs will play each other three times for 21 matches each.

Statistics

Top scorers[edit] As of 10 October 2021 Rank Player Club Goals 1 Tomoyuki Doi Hougang United 19 2 Boris Kopitović Tampines Rovers 16 3 Šime Žužul Balestier Khalsa 15 Kiyoshiro Tsuboi Albirex Niigata (S) 4 Stipe Plazibat Lion City Sailors 14 5 Gabriel Quak Lion City Sailors 13 6 Amy Recha Geylang International 12 7 Matheus Moresche Geylang International 11 Luiz Júnior Tanjong Pagar United 8 Ryoya Tanigushi Albirex Niigata (S) 9 Reo Nishiguchi Tanjong Pagar United 9 Kuraba Kondo Albirex Niigata (S) 8 10 Ilhan Fandi Young Lions 7 Song Ui-young Lion City Sailors

Top Assists[edit] As at 10 October 2021 Rank Player Club Assists 1 Armin Bošnjak Tampines Rovers 11 2 Ryoya Taniguchi Albirex Niigata (S) 8 Kaishu Yamazaki Hougang United Faris Ramli Lion City Sailors Zehrudin Mehmedović Tampines Rovers 3 Sime Zuzul Balestier Khalsa 7 Barry Maguire Geylang International Stipe Plazibat Lion City Sailors

Clean Sheets

As at 3 October 2021

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Takahiro Koga	Albirex Niigata (S)	8
2	Hassan Sunny	Lion City Sailors	5
3	Syazwan Buhari	Tampines Rovers	3

Hat-tricks

As of 10 October 2021

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Reference
Tomoyuki Doi	Hougang United	Tampines Rovers	5–1	3 April 2021	[51]
Boris Kopitović	Tampines Rovers	Young Lions	7–0	7 April 2021	[51]
Diego Lopes	Lion City Sailors	Geylang International	8–0	11 April 2021	[51]
Kiyoshiro Tsuboi	Albirex Niigata (S)	Tanjong Pagar United	6–0	17 April 2021	[51]
Kiyoshiro Tsuboi	Albirex Niigata (S)	Balestier Khalsa	4–1	25 April 2021	[51]
Šime Žužul	Balestier Khalsa	Tampines Rovers	5–2	19 August 2021	[51]
Tomoyuki Doi	Hougang United	Tampines Rovers	7–3	11 September 2021	[51]
Kiyoshiro Tsuboi 4	Albirex Niigata (S)	Tanjong Pagar United	4–4	10 October 2021	[51]

⁴ Player scored 4 goals

Penalty missed

Player	For	Against	Date
Stipe Plazibat	Lion City Sailors	Albirex Niigata (S)	7 April 2021

Awards

Monthly awards

Month	Player of the Month		Young Player of the Month		Coach of the Month		Goal of the Month	Ref
	Player	Club	Player	Club	Coach	Club	Player vs.
March	Tomoyuki Doi	Hougang United	Khairin Nadim	Young Lions	Clement Teo	Hougang United	Song Ui-young vs. Tanjong Pagar (17 March 2021)	[52]
April	Stipe Plazibat	Lion City Sailors FC	Kiyoshiro Tsuboi	Albirex Niigata (S)	Keiji Shigetomi	Albirex Niigata (S)	Gabriel Quak vs. Balestier Khalsa (18 April 2021)	[53]
May	Boris Kopitović	Tampines Rovers	Idraki Adnan	Hougang United	Clement Teo	Hougang United	Kyoga Nakamura vs. Young Lions (2/5/2021)	[54]
August	Šime Žužul	Balestier Khalsa	Ilhan Fandi	Young Lions	Hasrin Jailani	Tanjong Pagar United	Luiz Júnior vs. Albirex Niigata (S) (6/8/2021)	[55]
September	Jorge Fellipe	Lion City Sailors FC	Nur Adam Abdullah	Lion City Sailors FC	Kim Do-hoon	Lion City Sailors FC	Fabian Kwok vs. Tampines Rovers (11/9/2021)	[56]

Singapore Premier League Awards night winners

Awards	Winners	Club
Player of the Year	Tomoyuki Doi	Hougang United
Young Player of the Year	Nur Adam Abdullah	Lion City Sailors
Coach of the Year	Clement Teo	Hougang United
Top Scorer Award	Tomoyuki Doi	Hougang United
Golden Glove	Takahiro Koga	Albirex Niigata (S)
Goal of the Year	Gabriel Quak vs. Balestier Khalsa (18 April 2021)	Lion City Sailors
Fair Play Award	Albirex Niigata (S)
Referee of the Year	Jansen Foo	—

AIA Team of the Year
Goalkeeper	Takahiro Koga (Albirex Niigata (S))
Defence	Kazuki Hashioka ( Albirex Niigata (S))			Shuya Yamashita ( Albirex Niigata (S))			Jorge Fellipe (Lion City Sailors)			Nur Adam Abdullah (Lion City Sailors)
Midfield	Kaishu Yamazaki (Hougang United)				Ryoya Tanigushi ( Albirex Niigata (S))				Shahdan Sulaiman (Lion City Sailors)
Attack	Šime Žužul (Balestier Khalsa)				Stipe Plazibat (Lion City Sailors)				Tomoyuki Doi (Hougang United)