Lion City Sailors FC
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Lion City Sailors FC

Lion City Sailors Football Club, commonly referred to as the Sailors or LCS, is a Singaporean professional football club based in Bishan. It competes in the Singapore Premier League, the top tier of the Singapore football league system. Founded in 1945 as the Police Sports Association, the club renamed itself to Police FC in the inaugural 1996 S.League season, before rebranding once more as Home United in 1997. In 2020, it became first club in Singapore to be privatised under its current name.

It was the first privatised football club in the country. Owned by Forrest Li's Sea Limited, which is also a major local tech conglomerate, the club in its own vision aims to elevate the standards of football in Singapore and establish itself as an international powerhouse. The club has signed several high-profile local and foreign players, breaking the league's transfer record numerous times in the process, together with owning its own training facility at MacPherson, and focusing on youth development. They won 4 league titles, a record 8 Singapore Cups and 3 Community Shields in their history.

The Police Sports Association was founded in 1945 to organize football activities for the Singapore Police Force. It sent two teams to compete in the Singapore Amateur Football Association League in the 1950s and 1960s, but neither team won any trophies. Under coach Choo Seng Quee, the club won the inaugural President's Cup in 1968, then reached and lost the next two finals.

When the S.League was formed in 1996, the club was known as the Police Football Club. The following year, its name was changed to Home United to reflect the fact that the team represented not only the Singapore Police Force, but also other HomeTeam departments of the Singapore Ministry of Home Affairs such as the Singapore Civil Defence Force and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority. Home United nickname was the "Protectors" and its mascot, a dragon.

In 1999, Dutch head coach Robert Alberts guided the club to secured their first ever piece of silverware guiding them to win the 1999 S.League title. Alberts also won the Singapore Cup back-to-back winning the 2000 and 2001 edition.

In 2003, head coach Steve Darby guided Home United in becoming the first club to achieve the S.League and Singapore Cup double where he also steer the club to won the 2005 edition of the Singapore Cup. Under Korean manager tutelage, Lee Lim-saeng who is also the longest tenure as head coach in the club history, guided Home United to win both the 2011 Singapore Cup and the 2013 Singapore Cup in his 4 years at the club. In 2010, Home United hosted EFL Championship club Burnley as part of their pre-season trip to Singapore.

The club had qualified to the AFC Cup for the tenth time with their best result in the 2004 AFC Cup where they reached the semi-final losing to Syrian club, Al-Jaish 6–1 on aggregate. In the 2018 AFC Cup group stage, Home United was drawn with Philippines side Ceres–Negros, Cambodia side Boeung Ket Angkor and Myanmar side Shan United with a tally of 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 lost seeing the Protectors qualifying to the AFC Cup knockout stage as group winners. Home United would go on to face Indonesian club, Persija Jakarta winning the two legged tie in a 6–3 aggregate where they would advanced to the zonal finals facing Ceres–Negros and eventually won 3–1 on aggregate against the Philippines side. Home United then qualified to the inter-zone play-off semi-finals of the AFC Cup facing North Korea side, April 25 where during the second leg of the tie, Home United suffered their worst ever defeat in the club history losing 9–1 at the Kim Il Sung Stadium.

On 14 February 2020, the club was privatised for the first time in its history. The club was officially renamed as Lion City Sailors and its signature red colour was replaced with white and blue. The new name, Sailors, was a homage to the country's maritime heritage. Lion City Sailors were led by Aurelio Vidmar, the former Socceroos captain, from 2020. He joined after a hugely successful stint with Adelaide United, reaching the 2008 AFC Champions League final. Vidmar made a couple of stud signings including Singaporean stars Hassan Sunny, Gabriel Quak and Shahdan Sulaiman, Japanese defender Kaishu Yamazaki, as well a prolific Australian striker, Andy Pengelly.

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