Woodlands Wellington FC

Wellington Football Club (1988–1996)

Woodlands Wellington was founded as Wellington Football Club in 1988 as a splinter group of Delhi Juniors (a team of Singaporean football enthusiasts, dating back to the 1940s, that were among the pioneers of football in Singapore). Despite their name, the team did not originate from New Zealand as many believe. Instead, the name stems from the Deptford Ground located on Wellington Road in Sembawang where the team started playing football in 1988.

In 1991, they participated in the Sembawang Group League and National Island-Wide League, winning as champions in both competitions and setting a national record by beating Seletar Football Club by a 27-goal margin. This was one of the biggest wins the club had ever achieved, as they beat their opponents 28 – 1 at the Woodlands Stadium on 17 November 1991. Amalar Louis scored a record 12 goals in that match.

The following year, Wellington FC joined the Singapore National Football League in Division 2, from which they were promoted as champions in 1994. The following season they finished first in Division 1 (going unbeaten for 24 matches) and were runners-up in the FA Cup.

Woodlands Wellington Football Club (1996 – 2014)

Wellington Football Club were selected as one of eight clubs to compete in the newly formed S.League in its inaugural season in 1996, prompting the club to adopt Woodlands Stadium as their home ground and to change their name to Woodlands Wellington Football Club.

Following their admission to the S.League, Wellington FC's founder, R. Vengadasalam, was appointed as the Team Manager of Woodlands Wellington and Bandai were announced as a sponsor in their maiden season in the S.League. Following this, they signed Jan Janostak, Joe Caleta and Ervin Boban, from the M-League, as well as Singapore national players Borhan Abu Samah, Tamil Marren, Zakaria Awang and Croatian goalkeeper Sandro Radun, who played for the Singapore FA in 1992. Woodlands Wellington played to capacity crowds, including their pre-season friendlies.

Woodlands won the President's Centennial Cup in 1998, a cup competition organized by the Philippine Football Federation to celebrate the centennial of Philippine Independence, beating Sembawang Rangers 4–2 in the semi-final and Hong Kong Rangers FC 2–1 at the Negros Occidental Sports Complex in the final in Bacolod with both goals from Razali Ahmad.

While they enjoyed a relatively successful period throughout the late nineties, Woodlands finished last in the 2001 S.League season, prompting them to sign Singapore internationals Zulkarnaen Zainal, Goh Tat Chuan and A. Siva Kumar. The transfers of Goh and Siva Kumar were particularly controversial as Woodlands and Jurong were well-known rivals in the league.

2007 Walkout Incident

Woodlands Wellington made the headlines in the 2007 S.League season for a walkout by the entire Woodlands squad in a match against Tampines Rovers as a protest to the decisions made against them by referee P. Pandian. Woodlands were fined $30,000 for the incident and had six points docked. Tampines coach Vorawan Chitavanich was reported as saying "I spoke to their coach just a little while ago and he said that they acted on the instructions of their club chairman."

Reported withdrawal from the S. League

A report by The New Paper on 22 November 2012 suggested that Woodlands may be in financial trouble and could be the second club to sit out the 2013 S.League after Gombak United has announced earlier that it would not be taking part in the league in 2013. This sparked off a supporter-driven "Save Woodlands" awareness campaign on the same day. The club held an open meeting with the supporters and press at Woodlands Stadium later that evening and quashed the report. Team manager, Matthew Tay, also said that the club was already preparing a pre-season tour of Malaysia, and that the club would be signing players and would also be aiming for a minimum 8th spot in the table this season.

Merger with Hougang United

In November 2014, it was announced that Woodlands Wellington and Hougang United will merge for the 2015 season and a new club name will be used.

However, the merge never occurred and the club now plays in 2016 Island Wide League. The club plans to re-join S-League in the future.

Stadium

Woodlands Stadium is currently the home ground of Woodlands Wellington, and used mostly for football matches. Apart from being used for competitive matches, the pitch is also utilised by the club for their training sessions as well.

The stadium was officially opened in August 1989 as part of the eight hectare Woodlands Sports Complex, which also consists of the Woodlands Sports Hall and the Woodlands Swimming Complex. All three facilities are owned and operated by the Singapore Sports Council. Woodlands Stadium houses a natural grass football pitch, an eight-lane running track and partial athletic facilities.

Besides the sporting facilities mentioned above, the stadium also has a Singapore Pools outlet located near to the entrance of the away fans' stand, as well as the clubhouse of Woodlands Wellington FC.

Woodlands Stadium, Yishun Stadium and Bedok Stadium are the only stadia in Singapore which has a MRT track overlooking the pitch.

Woodlands Stadium started off with a total seating capacity of 1,600 when it was first constructed. Following the inauguration of the S.League in 1996, where the stadium was assigned as the home ground of Woodlands Wellington FC, the stadium capacity was upgraded to 4,300. This includes a 2,000 seater grandstand, a 1,000 seater semi-permanent stand opposite the grandstand and a 1,300 seater portable stands at each end of the pitch.

As Wellington Football Club, the team played in a white kit with purple and green trimmings. As soon as they were rebranded into the Woodlands Wellington Football Club in 1996, the Rams changed their home kit to all white with a narrow stripe of yellow and green down the middle.

In the ensuing years, yellow was employed as the main colour of choice for the home kit and this has become the traditional colour for the club.

Kit evolution

*The third kit for 2007 was used as the home kit of the 2008 season.

Sponsors

Woodlands Wellington FC was sponsored by Bandai from 1996 to 1998, after which it was sponsored by Sembcorp from 2001 to 2010. The club went without a sponsor from 2011 to 2012 before Singaporean equity company, ESW, took up the sponsorship of the Rams from March 2013.

The team is presently outfitted by Singaporean kit makers, Waga, for the 2013 season. Their previous kit sponsors include Lotto, Kappa, Diadora, Umbro, Mitre and Thai apparel makers, Acono.

Current Season

The 2014 season is Woodlands Wellington's 19th consecutive season in the top flight of Singapore football and 26th year in existence as a football club.

Players

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

Prime League Squad

Woodlands Wellington's reserves play in the Prime League, the reserve team league of the S.League.

The Woodlands Wellington Prime League team is made up primarily of youth players who have progressed from the Woodlands Wellington Centre of Excellence team, an in-house youth academy aimed at developing future footballing talents.

Some Prime League players, such as midfielders Andy Ahmad and Oswind Suriya, have featured prominently for the first team during their 2012 S-League campaign.

Prime League Squad

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

Youth Academy

The youth academy of Woodlands is the Centre of Excellence, which develops promising young players and grooms them for the future.

Domestic

Cup

International

Cup

Performance in domestic competitions

Last updated on 15 May 2014

Performance in AFC competitions

Supporters' Club

The supporters' club of Woodlands Wellington Football Club are known as The Black Sheep. They can be seen at both home and away games dressed in the club's official colours of yellow and blue and are usually seated behind the Rams' dugout. Since its inception, The Black Sheep have been using the warcry "Never Surrender!" to rally their players on.