Foreign Sports Talent Scheme
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The Foreign Sports Talent Scheme (FST), initially known as Project Rainbow, was a scheme used by sports officials and organisations in
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 ...
to scout and facilitate the migration of non-Singaporeans deemed to possess sports talent to play in Singapore colours in sporting events. Introduced in 1993 by the Singapore Table Tennis Association, it also aimed to boost local sporting standards by importing sporting expertise. In March 2008, it was announced in the
Parliament of Singapore The Parliament of Singapore is the unicameralism, unicameral legislature of the Singapore, Republic of Singapore, which governs the country alongside the President of Singapore. Largely based upon the Westminster system, the Parliament is made ...
that 54 athletes had benefited from the programme and received
Singapore citizenship Singapore nationality law details the conditions by which a person holds Singapore nationality. The primary law governing nationality requirements is the Constitution of Singapore, which came into force on 9 August 1965. Individuals born to at ...
, of which 37 were still in active training. As of November 2009, 4.6 per cent, or 39 athletes, of the total number of national athletes in Singapore are foreigners who are brought in through the scheme. The majority of the foreign sports talent are 19 for badminton and 11 for table tennis.


Debate

The achievement of Singapore's women's
table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...
team in winning a
silver medal A silver medal, in sports and other similar areas involving competition, is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, ...
at the
2008 Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fr ...
in
Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
, the country's first Olympic medal since 1960, reignited debate over the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme. Some critics said that the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) has relied too much on it, as the team consisted of three
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
-born players,
Feng Tianwei Feng Tianwei (, ; born 31 August 1986) is a Singaporean retired table tennis player. Born in China, she permanently moved to Singapore in March 2007 at the age of 20 under the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme and commenced her international car ...
,
Li Jiawei Li Jiawei (; born 9 August 1981) is a retired Chinese-born former Singaporean table tennis player, four-time Olympian, and twice Olympic medalist. She trained in Beijing's famous Shichahai Sports School with Olympic medalist Zhang Yining. I ...
and
Wang Yuegu Wang Yuegu (, ; born 10 June 1980) is a retired Chinese-born Singaporean table tennis player who was ranked among the top ten players in the world. Wang made her inaugural appearance as a Singaporean table tennis player on the International Ta ...
. A day earlier, STTA president Lee Bee Wah had said: "It doesn't mean that we should look at them oreign-born table tennis playersdifferently because they're not born and brought up in Singapore. The important thing is that they have embraced Singapore and want to be a part of it. And they wanted so badly to win a medal for our country. We should not be harping on where they are born. I hope mindsets change." In addition, during his Mandarin
National Day Rally The National Day Rally (; ; ) is an annual message delivered by the Prime Minister of Singapore to the entire nation, on the first or second Sunday after National Day on 9 August. Started in 1966, the national day rally is Singapore's equivalen ...
speech on 17 August,
Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
Lee Hsien Loong Lee Hsien Loong (born 10 February 1952) is a Singaporean politician and former military officer who served as the third Prime Minister of Singapore, prime minister of Singapore from 2004 to 2024, thereafter serving as a Senior Minister of S ...
said: In a 2009 Parliament session, Nominated Member of Parliament Joscelin Yeo questioned if a minimum ratio of local athletes versus athletes who graduate under the FST Scheme is needed, to ensure Singapore-born hopefuls have the opportunity to realise their full potential. In a written response, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS)
Vivian Balakrishnan Vivian Balakrishnan (; born 25 January 1961) is a Singaporean politician, diplomat and former ophthalmologist who has been serving as Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2015. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he has been th ...
said that Singapore will continue to embrace talented foreign athletes who want to represent the country, as long as they raise the standard of sports in Singapore. Balakrishnan also laid down the three principles that guide the FST policy: openness to global talent, fairness in treatment of FSTs and local-born athletes, and ensuring the integration of the foreign-born athletes into society. FST application is processed by MCYS and the
Singapore Sports Council Sport Singapore (SportSG) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth of the Government of Singapore. It is the lead agency tasked with developing a holistic sports culture for the nation. History Sport Singapore was ...
, with the
Ministry of Home Affairs An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the i ...
final approval for each athlete to gain Permanent Residency and subsequent Singapore citizenship. Balakrishnan maintained that there was no need to set a ratio on the number of FSTs in each sport as the Singapore Youth Sports Development Committee is working to grow the pool of young local athletes by spotting young talent early and nurturing them, and giving them greater exposure to competition. Balakrishnan revealed that FSTs currently make up 4.6 per cent of the total number of athletes among the development and national squads of the seven key sports in the country. Badminton and table tennis have the most number of FSTs in their teams with 19 FSTs out of 97 badminton players, and 11 FSTs out of 85 table tennis players.


Athletics

Singapore Athletic Association's (SAA) President, Loh Lin Kok, brought in
shot put The shot put is a track-and-field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical Ball (sports), ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the Olympic Games, modern Olympics since their 1896 Summer Olym ...
specialists Du Xianhui, Zhang Guirong and Dong Enxin from China under the scheme in 1998. Dong became a Singapore citizen in May 2001 while Du and Zhang became Singapore citizen in October 2003. Another shot putter, Luan Wei and hammer thrower E Xiaoxu were brought to Singapore in 1999. Du returned to China after a dispute over an administrative process for her drug testing in 2007 and retired from sports. in 2013, she was persuaded by SAA officials to come back to compete for Singapore again. Luan and E Xiaoxu were involved in court cases with the SAA over unfair dismissal while Dong had disappointed in performance. Loh admitted in an interview in 2007 that the scheme had failed miserably for the SAA but will not abandon the scheme. Loh, in 2008, said it was a total failure for SAA and had "feared the worst when we brought them in."


Badminton

As of 2022,
Singapore Badminton Association Singapore Badminton Association (abbreviation: SBA) is the Sports governing body, national governing body for badminton in Singapore. It governs, encourages and develops the sport throughout the country. Founded in 1929, the SBA is an affilia ...
's last foreign badminton player to receive Singapore citizenship was in 2014.


Football

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 ...
(FAS) adopted the FST Scheme in 2000 but was limited to scouting talent for the
Singapore national football team The Singapore national football team represents Singapore in the senior men's international football. It is organised by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), the governing body of football in Singapore, which is affiliated with the Asi ...
to boost Singaporean football. Its goal is to attract foreign players in Singapore to change nationality and thus play for Singapore. The scheme is described as the second key pillar of the FAS football excellence plans. Launched in the year 2000, its objective was to complement the FAS Youth Development programme by identifying the playing positions in the national team that were lacking, especially from its youth development output and to fill these gaps with FSTs. The first FSTs were inducted in Jan 2002. In 2002, the national team welcomed Croatian-born Mirko Grabovac, Brazilian-born Egmar Gonçalves and English defender Daniel Bennett to strengthen the national team. The Nigerian-born pair of
Agu Casmir Agu Casmir (born 23 March 1984) is a former professional association football, footballer who played as a striker (association football), striker or attacking midfielder. Born in Nigeria, he played for the Singapore national football team, Sin ...
and Itimi Dickson received their Singapore citizenship in 2003 and 2004 respectively. The FAS, with the help of the clubs, also identified several other talented U-21 foreign players under this scheme. Their performances were closely monitored in the S.League. From 2007, the FAS accepted changes to the scheme which requires new foreign sports talents to play in the S.League for a minimum of two seasons after being granted Singapore citizenship. When the FAS first launched the FST scheme in 2000, the intention was to offer citizenship to two or three foreign players each year. However, due to the stringent selection process and early success of the youth development programme, to date, only nine foreign-born players have been granted Singapore citizenship. All of them have played in the S.League to contribute to the local football scene and also played for the national team. In 2018, FAS announced they would be reviving the scheme after an 8-year break, with 2 potential footballers to be included in the scheme. One of them was revealed to be Song Ui-young from
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
. In 2022, after the national football team was knocked out of the group stage of the
2022 AFF Championship The 2022 AFF Championship (officially AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup 2022 due to sponsorship reasons) was the 14th edition of the AFF Championship, the football championship of nations affiliated to the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) and was the 1 ...
, there were renewed calls for FAS to use the FST Scheme to boost the quality of the national team. As of 2025, the last football player to be granted citizenship under the scheme was
Qiu Li Qiu Li (, born June 6, 1981, in Shenyang, Liaoning, China) is a naturalised Chinese-Singaporean former professional association football player and is currently the youth coach of Singapore Premier League club Balestier Khalsa. Playing car ...
, who received citizenship in 2010 and eligible to play for Singapore in 2010 under FIFA rules. On 6 February 2025, 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 ...
general secretary Chew Chun-Liang announced that Perry Ng would be applying for Singapore citizenship through the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme.


See also

* List of Foreign Sports Talent Scheme Athletes


References

{{reflist} Sport in Singapore Sport and nationality Singaporean nationality law