January 1 2004

Home United & SAFFC had both revealed their 1^st team squad for the 2004 season.

Home United had finished 2003 season as the double winner of the league & Singapore Cup. As a result, they will be involved with the AFC Cup along with Geylang United who was runner-up in the Singapore Cup.

With 27 league matches & 6 AFC Cup matches in the group stages, the protectors will have to play a minimum of 33 matches without adding in the National expected called-up of many of the Protectors players. Therefore it will be a packed season for the Protectors.

Their coach Steve Darby have therefore decided keep the core of his 2003 team choosing to release only 5 players for the new season. He had indicated that the teamwork & spirit build up last season would come in useful this season when they have to campaign in both Asia & Singapore.

After last season disappointment, SAFFC has decided to go on a different path from previous seasons. Instead of buying big-name players to boast their championship hope, they have decided to get new players who are hunger to win a championship medal. 14 new players were recruited.

The management had decided last season failure was a result of the players losing their hunger to succeed. The Warriors had the 2^nd biggest budget behind Champion Home United but their results were disappointing. They were knocked out in the group stage of the Singapore Cup & finished 16 points behind Home United & Geylang United in 3rd position. Therefore only 6 players Nenad Bacina, V Selvaraji , Daniel Bennet, Anaz Hadee, Ballamodou Conde & Ashrin Shariff were retained from the previous squad. Their coach Fandi Ahmad also lost his job as they feel he did not have the experience to guide the team in the new direction & in his place they appointed ex-Wales U21 manager Jimmy Shoulder as the new coach.