The National Football League, commonly known as the NFL, is an amateur competition for clubs that are affiliated to the Football Association of Singapore. It makes up the second, third and fourth tier of football in Singapore behind the professional S.League, which was established in 1996.
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There are three divisions in the league, with 10 teams making up each division. The league features promotions and relegations for all the teams in all three divisions, where the top two teams of a division will be promoted to the upper division, and the last two of a division will be relegated to the lower division.
The teams play a two-round league format, with a Home-Away format, making the total number of matches played by each team in one season to 18 matches.
Although it is an amateur competition, several former Singapore internationals and S.League players are playing in the NFL such as Azhar Baksin (Admiralty FC), Ishamuddin Baroocha (Jollilads Arsenal), Hilmi Azman (Police Sports Association) and Jasper Chan (Eunos Crescent).
Past champions
In 1975, the FAS revamped the existing league structure involving 118 teams into a three-tier league system with ten teams in each division. The top tier of the football league system was replaced by the FAS Premier League from 1988, and the S.League from 1996.
Division One
For the 1987 season, the teams play each other once in a league format. The top eight placed teams in the league progressed to a knock-out stage to determine the champions. League stage winners Tiong Bahru defeated 4th-placed Tampines Rovers 2–1 in the final to clinch the championship.
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NFL 2012 Season
At the end of the 2011 season, Keppel Monaco Football Club and Tiong Bahru Football Club were promoted to Division 1 while Kaki Bukit SC and Prison Sports and Recreation Club were relegated to Division 2.
In addition to that, there was only 1 team promoted to Division 2 (Sporting Westlake Football Club) and 1 team relegated to Division 3 (Summerville Football Club).
In the NFL 2012 season, the Division 1 and Division 3 leagues featured 10 teams each, while the Division 2 league featured 9 teams only.
Division 3 club, Siglap CSC, also made it to the Singapore Pools FA Cup final, where they were defeated by Balestier Khalsa's Prime League team by 2 goals to nil.
The clubs which participated the NFL in the current 2012 season, as well as their final standings in their respective leagues, are as follows: