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History of 1997 season
The second S-League season confirmed the arrival of SAFFC as the new Kingpin of the S-league.
At the same time, it looked like the beginning of the Warriors and Jaguars rivalry, with Tiong Bahru United, second in the 1996 Pioneer Series behind the Warriors, again having to contend themselves with that position.
The Jaguars were the only team able to challenge the Warriors as the much-anticipated challenge from the other two giants of the Tiger Beer Series, Geylang United and Woodlands Wellington never bearing fruit.
The S-league champion, the Eagles, were undergoing a re-organization after the 1996 League and Cup Double and never posed a threat while the Rams were plagued by reports of internal crisis throughout the season but would still managed to finish a respectable third despite never being close to becoming a threat.
Before all that though, the pre-season saw quite a number of changes with the most important being the 1996 S-League format of two Series in one season replaced by the more established format only having two rounds of matches to decide the league champion.
It was better this way, for a team could do badly in one of the Series and still be crowned as S-league champions no matter how highly unthinkable. Also from the way the Pioneer Series went, fans were not buying the theory of two champions in a season.
Police FC having flopped miserably last season underwent a name change in the hope it will bring about a change to their fortune. The uniform team was struck in the bottom three of the table for both Series last season despite the fact the Protectors had a budget that could easily placed them in the top half.
Apart from the poor results, the club also suffered from poor attendance at their home matches at Jalan Besar Stadium. Therefore from 1997 onwards, Police FC became Home United.
The league also continued to expand with two applications - Marine Castle and Jurong Town - submitted and both approved.
However, a poaching incident reported to the S-League committee would affect that.
Home United was unhappy that their foreign striker Egmar Goncalves was being poached despite the fact he was still under contract with them. The guilty club was
An investigation was conducted and their manager Dilwant Singh was found to have flouted the poaching rule so he was banned one year for the incident.
In the end, only Jurong Town join the S-League and they move into Bukit Gomak stadium while their designated stadium at Jurong East was being built and they were known as Jurong FC from now onward.
The poaching incident though was not the only controversy in pre-season.
SAFFC and Sembawang Rangers had clashed over the services of Singapore international and captain Nazri Nasir.
Nazri Nasir had signed a two-year contract with the Stallions back in 1996 but was now growing disillusioned with the Yishun-based club. It was becoming clear to all that Sembawang Rangers will never became the force, their chairman had boasted back in 1996, with the club not just plagued by poor results but also lacking the purchasing power compared to other S-league clubs.
The club had finished in the bottom two for both Series last season and with poor purchasing power, there were problems in attracting quality players to join them.
With that, SAFFC, who had shown already their ambition with the capture of striker Fandi Ahmad from Geylang United, saw an opportunity in signing the best local midfielder and was sparing no efforts in luring Nazri Nasir to the Warriors.
The lure of winning his first S-league championship medal proved too much for Nazri Nasir and he demanded a transfer from the Stallions. While not pleased, the Stallions were also left with no choice as they did not wished to keep an unhappy player on their books.
They, therefore, demanded $60000 from SAFFC for the transfer of Nazri Nasir but SAFFC bulk at the amount and refused to pay it.
Both sides refused to back down; forcing the matter to drag on and soon matters looked to be boiling over as both sides threaten each other about taking the matter up with the Labour Ministry.
As FIFA do not like government involvement in football issues, FAS finally acted and got both sides to agree a transfer fee of $30000.
Nazri Nasir, wanting to prove money was not his main motivation, paid half of the Warriors transfer fee to the Stallions.
With the addition of Fandi Ahmad and Nazri Nasir, the Warriors have two of the best local players in the S-league and it does not take into the consideration SAFFC already had a squad many would envies with them still retaining the deadly Croatian trio of Velimir Crljen, Ivica Raguz and Jure Eres.
Therefore, one had to question who could stop them with their power pack squad and it was of no surprise that they steamrolled the rest of the opposition in the 1997 S-League league season; confirming their 1997 S-league crown with two matches to spare.
At this time, Woodlands Wellington, one of the team touted to challenge for the S-league crown, was starting to show the first sign of crack with Vega and Sundramoorthy splitting at the end of the league season.
There were already many rumors before that about both not seeing eye to eye and each wanting to be in charge and now all that can be confirmed as the truth.
It was a sad end to the manager and player combination that saw the raise of Woodlands Wellington from the status of a small club in the NFL to a giant in the S-league.
With the league season over, it was time to concentrate on the cup competitions and this year saw the launch of the Tiger Beer League Cup. It was exclusively meant for S-league clubs only, with a group stage before proceeding to a semi-final knockout stage.
Like the S-League league season, SAFFC crushed all teams that stood in their path in reaching the Final. The Warriors got out of the group stage comprising Home United and Balestier Central easily with four straight victories.
In the semi-final, the Stags proved more formidable as the S-league champion could only edge out a 2-1 victory over two legs.
Meeting the Warriors in the Final was the Eagles as the Eastern-based club shake off their poor league season.
The Eagles though, had a much more difficult time as they nearly fell in the semi-final stage when drawn against Tiong Bahru United.
The Jaguars defeated the Eagles 3-1 at Queenstown in the first leg leaving a mountain to climb for the former S-league champion in the return leg at Bedok.
The Eagles though showed their reputation as a kingpin were not for show with the Eagles triumphing in extra-time 4-1 in the second leg back at Bedok for an overall 5-4 victory.
On September 6, 14000 fans turned out at the National Stadium for the Tiger Beer League Cup Final to witness the newly crowned S-league champion, Warriors, take on ex-S-league champions, Eagles.
Each team wanted the honour of winning the inaugural trophy and furthermore, the Eagles had the extra motivation of stopping the Warriors from emulating their League and Cup Double last season.
Still, it was not meant to be for the Eagles as they fell to a Davor Mioc winner with ten minutes left. Velimir Crljen swing in his usual curling corner and his countryman Davor Mioc was in among the pack to meet it as it flew into the net.
It was a cruel blow to the Eagles as they had dominated much of the proceeding up to that point and if not for the numeral wasted chances, they would have been in front and the possibility they had even won the match.
Not that it mattered to the Warriors, for it was sweet revenge for them after having lost both the Grand Final and FA Cup Final last season to the Eagles.
After emulating the Eagles League & Cup Double, the Warriors had the chance to go one better with the Treble on the card as they reached the 1997 Singapore Pools FA Cup as well.
Standing in their way was Woodlands Wellington who wanted to prove to all that they could survive without their star player Sundramoorthy.
The Northern-based club fought their way to the Singapore Pools FA Cup Final although one have to admit the Rams were also fortunate in the sense that in the earlier round, they had the luck of meeting lower division oppositions, Tessensohn Khalsa Rovers (NFL) in the third round and Kaki Bukit (NFL) in the quarter-final.
It was only until the semi-final stage, they had to meet an S-league opposition, Tiong Bahru United.
The Jaguars were not in charity mood as they had already been knocked out in the Tiger Beer League Cup semi-final by the Eagles. The third-placed Rams though held the second-placed Jaguars to a 1-1 draw before triumphing 4-3 in the PK shootout at Jalan Besar.
On November 2, the 1997 Singapore Pools FA Cup Final saw the Warriors match up against the Rams with 10000 fans witnessing one of the greatest display by
It was rightly dubbed the Fandi Ahmad Cup instead of the FA Cup for Fandi Ahmad single-handedly handed the Warriors a 4-2 victory over the Rams. It was one of the best individual performances ever witnessed in the Final as the Singaporean striker struck a hat-trick and created the fourth Warriors goal to be rightly named as MVP for the Singapore Pools FA Cup Final.
It was the correct fitting as nobody on the night came close to what Fandi Ahmad did.
It was truly a remarkable season for the Warriors for apart from the domestic Treble, they also stamped their class over the entire
They were clearly a class apart from the rest of the league for 1997 and with the squad they have, one can foresee the Warriors dominance in the domestic scene for years to come.
1997 S-league Table
| Teams | W | D | L | GF | GA | Points |
| SAFFC | 12 | 1 | 3 | 42 | 11 | 37 |
| Tiong Bahru United | 10 | 4 | 2 | 33 | 16 | 34 |
| Woodlands | 11 | 0 | 5 | 35 | 29 | 33 |
| Balestier Central | 8 | 4 | 4 | 43 | 26 | 28 |
| Geylang United | 6 | 7 | 3 | 23 | 18 | 25 |
| Tampines Rovers | 6 | 3 | 8 | 22 | 38 | 2 |
| Jurong FC | 6 | 3 | 8 | 15 | 33 | 21 |
| Sembawang Rangers | 1 | 5 | 10 | 19 | 37 | 8 |
| Home United | 2 | 1 | 13 | 17 | 41 | 7 |
SAFFC route to FA Cup Final
| Stage | Home Team | | | Away Team |
| Third Round | SAFFC | 4 | 1 | Home United |
| Quarter-final | Balestier Central | 1 | 3 | SAFFC |
| Semi-final | SAFFC | 3 | 2 | Tampines Rovers |
Woodlands Wellington route to FA Cup Final
| Stage | Home Team | | | Away Team |
| Third Round | Woodlands | 11 | 0 | TKR(NFL) |
| Quarter-final | Woodlands | 2 | 1 | Kaki Bukit (NFL) |
| Semi-final | Woodlands | (4) 1 | 1 (3) | Tiong Bahru United |
1997 FA Cup Final
| FA Cup Final | ||
| SAFFC | 4-2 | Woodlands |
| - Fandi Ahmad (3) | - Stuart Young | |
SAFFC route to League Cup Final
| Stage | Home Team | | | Away Team |
| Group | Home United | 1 | 2 | SAFFC |
| Group | SAFFC | 1 | 0 | Balestier Central |
| Group | SAFFC | 2 | 1 | Home United |
| Group | Balestier Central | 2 | 3 | SAFFC |
| Semi-final, first leg | SAFFC | 1 | 0 | Tampines Rovers |
| Semi-final, second leg | Tampines Rovers | 1 | 1 | SAFFC |
Geylang United route to League Cup Final
| Stage | Home Team | | | Away Team |
| Group | Geylang United | 2 | 1 | Jurong |
| Group | Woodlands | 0 | 0 | Geylang United |
| Group | Jurong | 1 | 3 | Geylang United |
| Group | Geylang United | 3 | 0 | Woodlands |
| Semi-final, first leg | Tiong Bahru United | 3 | 1 | Geylang United |
| Semi-final, second leg | Geylang United | 4 | 1 | Tiong Bahru United |
1997 League Cup Final
| SAFFC | 1-0 | Geylang United |
| - Davor Mioc (78') | ||
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