On the afternoon of August 6, SNOC announced the list of athletes and sports teams participating in the 33rd Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games 33), taking place later this year in Thailand.
Accordingly, SNOC will send 762 athletes to participate in 42 events of the 33rd SEA Games. Notably, the Singapore U22 team was not sent to the upcoming conference, due to poor performance in recent times.
At the 32nd SEA Games, U22 Singapore was eliminated from the group stage, with one draw and three losses. They ended the group stage with a 0-7 defeat to U22 Malaysia. That was the biggest defeat for Singapore's men's football, since the sport was introduced to players aged U23, U22 and under since 2001.
It has been more than a decade since Singapore's men's football has passed the group stage of the SEA Games. Most recently, the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) also decided not to participate in the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 Championship - a tournament that U23 Vietnam won.
The SNOC still allows the member sports association to give feedback surrounding its decision before August 15. Most likely, FAS will appeal the elimination of U22 Singapore from the 33rd SEA Games, and they will plan to organize friendly matches so that the team can best prepare for the event at the end of the year.
In case FAS cannot change the decision of SNOC, Singapore men's football will not participate in the SEA Games for the first time since 1969.
