Admiralty Football Club, also commonly known as Admiralty FC, is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club which plays in the Division 2 of the

Singapore Football League The Singapore Football League (SFL) is a football tournament for semi-professional clubs that are affiliated to the Football Association of Singapore. It makes up the second and third tier of football in Singapore after the professional Singapor ...

, the third tier of football in Singapore. The club is currently participating in FAS Island Wide League under the new name, Eastern Thunder FC.

History

Admiralty FC started in 1987 as a participant in the Sembawang Group League, a mini-league organized by the

Football Association of Singapore The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) is the governing body responsible for the administration of football in Singapore. Established in 1892 as the Singapore Football Association (SFA), it is the oldest football association in all of ...

which involved amateur clubs based in the

Sembawang Sembawang ( ) is a Planning Areas of Singapore, planning area and New towns of Singapore, residential town located in the North Region, Singapore, North Region of Singapore. Sembawang planning area is bordered by Simpang to the east, Mandai to t ...

area in the 1980s. During its time in the Sembawang Group League, Admiralty FC often played against Delhi Juniors, which was the original name of

Woodlands Wellington Woodlands Wellington Football Club was a professional association football, football club based in Woodlands, Singapore, Woodlands, Singapore which played in the S.League, the top division of football in Singapore. The club took part in S.League ...

before it changed its name to Wellington FC in 1998. In 1989, Admiralty FC finished as one of the top two teams in the Island-Wide League and was set to be promoted to the Division 2 of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL). Its promotion was challenged by Gillman FC who seek to nullify a match between Admiralty FC and Shelford United, which Admiralty FC won 5–0. FAS rejected the challenge and Admiralty FC was successfully promoted to the SFL. With only two years of participation, Admiralty FC was made an official football club in 1989 to compete in the SFL and it played the majority of its home games at the

Yio Chu Kang Yio Chu Kang ( ), alternatively spelt as Yeo Chu Kang, is a sub-urban area in the northeast of Singapore, with proximity to the Ang Mo Kio, Lentor, Seletar and Sengkang areas. Deriving its name from the Yio Chu Kang Village, it is still known for ...

stadium. Nasiruddin Sawardi and Fahmie Abdullah were two other ex-

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

internationals who featured for Admiralty in the early nineties. Admiralty FC came under the limelight in February 2012 when its management announced the appointment of former

team manager and

Tampines Rovers Tampines Rovers Football Club (currently known as BG Tampines Rovers due to sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football, football club based in Tampines, Singapore, that competes in the Singapore Premier League, the top tier of t ...

Director of Operations

R. Vengadasalam R. Vengadasalam, commonly known as Venga, is a Singaporean football official who is the founder and current president of Woodlands Lions FC, a youth-developmental football club with its senior team taking part in Singapore Island Wide Leag ...

as their team manager. It also made waves in the local footballing fraternity when it announced that it was interested in joining the S.League in 2013. Following the arrival of Venga, Admiralty swooped for veteran midfielder and ex-Singapore international Mohd Noor Ali to become the team's player-coach. In preparation for the 2012 NFL Division 2 season, Venga also orchestrated the moves for several well-known former S.League players such as

Azhar Baksin Azhar Baksin (born 26 November 1976) is an ex- Singaporean international footballer who plays as a midfielder for NFL Division 2 side Admiralty FC. Apart from his playing duties, he was also appointed as the coach of the Wolves following the ...

Tan Sio Beng Tan Sio Beng is a Singaporean former footballer who played as a Defender (association football), defender for Singapore National Football League, NFL Division 2 side Admiralty FC and the Singapore national football team. Club career Tan's perf ...

and

Shariff Abdul Samat Muhammad Shariff bin Abdul Samat (5 January 1984 – 10 February 2020) was a Singaporean Singapore national football team, international Association football, footballer. Shariff is the son of former Singaporean international Samad Allapitcha ...

, as well as

Jean-Charles Blanpin Jean-Charles Blanpin (born 29 October 1989) is a French former footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American foot ...

and

Nordine Talhi Nordine Talhi (born 22 July 1986) is a French former professional footballer who played as a midfielder or defender. He is currently playing for Singapore Football League semi-professional club Project Vaults Oxley. Club career Étoile In 2 ...

from Etoile FC following the

Stars A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by self-gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night; their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed points of ...

' decision to pull out from the

2012 S.League The 2012 S.League was the 17th season of the S-League, the top professional football league in Singapore. It is known as the Great Eastern- Yeo's S.League for sponsorship reasons. Tampines Rovers won their fourth title, finishing top of a 13-te ...

. On 30 June 2012, Admiralty FC were crowned champions of the NFL Division 2 2012 season when they beat Jollilads Arsenal FC by a 5–1 scoreline. The victory was also the 12th consecutive win for the Wolves, preserving an unbeaten run for the club since the start of the 2012 NFL Division 2 season. Admiralty made history by becoming the first NFL club to qualify for the League Cup after beating

Singapore Recreation Club The Singapore Recreation Club (Abbreviation: SRC; ) is one of Singapore's oldest social clubs with a strong sporting tradition, located on Connaught Drive at the north end of the Padang in the heart of Singapore's Civic District. History The ...

in the League Cup Playoff Final on 12 May 2013. In 2019, the club was relegated from NFL Division 2 to the Island Wide League (IWL) after finishing 3rd in the bottom tier (11th overall). However, they did not participate in the 2022 IWL when the league returned after the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Admiralty FC officially changed their name to Eastern Thunder Football Club (Eastern Thunder FC) with effect from 22 January 2024. The club returned to Island Wide League under the new name for the 2024 season. They topped their group and reached the Semi-finals.

2012 NFL Division 2 season

In a pre-season friendly, Admiralty beat S.League side

Geylang United Geylang International Football Club is a professional football club based in Bedok, Singapore, that competes in Singapore Premier League, the top division of football in Singapore. The club was founded in 1973 and played their first season in 1 ...

, a team that was playing its football 2 divisions above the Wolves, with a 2–1 scoreline, giving everyone a sense of things to come. Observers at the friendly match thought that Admiralty was in no way inferior to the

Eagles Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...

. Admiralty conquered the 2012 NFL Division 2 in great fashion, bulldozing their way across the league and embarking on a 12 match unbeaten run since the start of the season. They were crowned as NFL Division 2 champions on 30 June 2012 with 4 matches to spare. During the S.League mid-season break,

made an inquiry to Admiralty FC about the availability of tough tackling defender

. Upon hearing about the inquiry, Venga immediately released Shariff's Local Transfer Certificate, allowing the former 2007 S.League Young Player of the Year to make his return to the S.League. This was also around the same time where

came knocking on Admiralty's doors asking for the services of player-coach Mohd Noor Ali. Noor Ali was allowed to leave for the club where he played for 6 seasons in the S.League, joining the

as their assistant coach. Following Noor Ali's departure, midfielder

was installed as the new player-coach while defender

was appointed as the player-assistant coach. Both players were chosen due to their match experience in the S.League, as well as their valuable experience as ex- Singapore internationals. After a dominant season in Division 2,

, the team manager of Admiralty FC submitted their application to join the 2013 S.League season in July 2012 but their bid was rejected. A FAS spokesman explained that this was because the S.League will remain a 13-team competition next season.

Rivalries

Admiralty FC has a huge rivalry with fellow

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

club Sembawang Sports Club,"Sundram stars in Sembawang triumph", The Straits Times, 10 May 1993, Page 30 due to the fact that both teams have stemmed from the

area in northern Singapore. Both teams often locked horns in the

Division One in the nineties.

Honours

*National Football League **Division 1 Champions: 2006 & 2007 **Division 2 Champions: 2012

Notable players

* Mohd Noor Ali *

External links

* *
Yishun FC
o
FAS official websiteEastern Thunder FC
on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

Eastern Thunder FC
on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

References

{{Reflist Football clubs in Singapore Singapore Football League clubs