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History of the 1999 season
Before the 1999 season started, the league almost lost a club when Jurong, had a few months ago in 1998, faced bankrupt.
A "SAVE JURONG CAMPAIGN" was launched to raise the $500000 amount needed to rescue the club. It all came about when Jurong main sponsor had fallen out with the club and pulled out in between the 1998 season and not helping the club further was the financial situation as the 97 Asian Financial Crisis hit the island republic.
The "SAVE JURONG CAMPAIGN" helped the club raised the necessary amount to ensure the club stayed in the S-league.
With their financial difficulties settled, the Jurong management turned their eye back to on the field matters and decided to put their faith in their star player Sundramoorthy, who was a major reason why help to the club was forecoming, and appointed him as the League first ever player-coach.
It was also a matter of few choices for Jurong who have no financial strength to recruit any players or coaches with standing. Therefore, under Sundramoorthy, his main job was to form an economical and yet effective team to compete.
The rise of the second Kingpin of the S-league - Home United - was also confirmed when Protectors new coach Robert Alberts started building the firm foundation the club needed to win the S-league crown.
In his time with the Jaguars, Robert Alberts had build a great Jaguars team and now, as coach of Home United, he decided it was time to bring over the key players he had helped to install there.
With that in mind, the core of the Tanjong Pagar United team were almost taken apart by Home United with S Subramani, Aidil Sharin and Vlado Bozinoski all departing to join Robert Alberts at Home United.
At the same time, Robert Alberts showed he was a coach not afraid to make major decision, when he feel it is for the benefit of the team, as he released the league top scorer Stuart Young who he deem as too similar to Emgar Gonclaves thus resulting in Home United attack being too predictable.
It was a major shock to everybody at the point and seems a bad decision but Stuart Young replacement, Australian Ernie Tapai, formed a great partnership with Emgar Gonclaves; playing behind the Brazilian as the support striker and totally justifying Robert Alberts decision.
Meanwhile, the Warriors saw their coach Vincent Subramaniam depart to become National coach and his replacement was Croatian Mladen Pralija.
The first step to rebuild the Warriors had begun with the core of the great Warriors team of the last three years broken up with the deadly trio of Velimir Crljen, Ivica Raguz and Jure Eres all released.
The near invisible Warriors for the last three years were now gone.
In their place came Vinko Maraca, Tomislav Steinbruckner and Mirko Grabovac, of which only Mirko Grabovac was a success as he shows everybody what a goal-scoring machine he was, hitting 31 S-league goals to finish as the league top scorer in his first season.
For the fourth S-league season, two clubs – Tampines Rovers and Woodlands
Tampines Rovers, lead by coach Robin Chan, believe in experience and soon assembled he oldest team of the S-league as they recruited oldies like Scott O’Donell, Nathaniel Nalah, Marko Kralijevic, Zlako Vidan, David Lee and Roniwardi Mamsa, forming a team whose who age was averaging 29 years.
The team was dubbed the nicknames of "
Like the nicknames suggested, Tampines Rovers had problems starting off and was slowed off the pace with their title hope ended before it even begun. It was a terrible season for the club with them struck in the bottom three at the end of the season.
Woodlands
Like Tampines Rovers, their season turned out badly and the decline of the Rams continued.
At this point, the S-league finally expanded to their long desire target of 12 teams as another team Clementi Khalsa was formed and joined the S-league for the 1999 season.
The season started with everybody expecting the Jaguars to decline after the lost of many of their established players but in reality it was all hot air as the Jaguars were impressive all season to finish in third place and showing all talk of their decline was way over exaggerated.
Another club that impressed was Gombak United, lead by coach David O’Connor, as they won the heart of many fans not only with their brand of attacking football but also with the way they fought to push themselves into fifth position after having finished second from bottom in their debut season. At one point the Bulls even had the chance to finish among the top three but it proved too much of an uphill battle with the squad they had.
Jurong, after their financial difficulties in pre-season and having a rookie coach Sundramoorthy in charge, certainly did well to finish in mid-table position with a defensive mettle that only impressed their fans but few others.
In all, nothing was expected to change for the Warriors were expected to keep their dominance over the rest of the league despite all the changes they faced but for the first time, their uniform rival Home United emerged as a formidable challenger.
The national team backline of S Subramani, Aide Iskandar and R Sasikumar brought in by Robert Alberts performed well in shutting out teams in the league while the midfield, along with attack, was driven by ex-Hungary international and Protectors captain Zsolts Bucs who not only knocked in the goals but also drive the team forward.
It showed in the vital games against the Champions as the Protectors were the only team in the league season to defeat the Champions as well shutting them out despite the Warriors having a goal machine, Mirko Grabovac.
The two meetings were important as it meant the Protectors won a crucial four points off the Champions with a 2-0 win at Bishan and 0-0 draw at Jurong.
For that results, we should not forget the man of 1999 - Home United midfield general Zsolts Bucs - with his impressive long range passing and scorching shots.
Like a knife, it drove the Protectors through the Warriors heart to win the S-league crown with one game to spare.
Therefore, it was no surprise when at the end of the season, Zsolts Bucs was crowned Player of the Season.
Into the Cup competition and this year, the Tiger Beer Singapore Cup became the main cup competition in Singapore with the Singapore Pools FA Cup discarded by the S-league to be only competed by the National Football League (NFL) amateur clubs.
The reasons for the changes were S-league clubs had long felt the prize money of $20000 for the winner of Singapore Pools FA Cup was not worth the efforts compared to the Tiger Beer Singapore Cup $70000.
Also, NFL amateur clubs, with little chances of progressing when faced against S-league clubs, wanted the
A step backwards or a step forwards? One cannot tell but it highlighted the huge gap in standard between the professional S-league and amateur NFL.
Nevertheless, S-league took the decision for
The Warriors were determined to get over the disappointment of losing their league title to the Protectors and were all geared up for the Cup competition. They progressed easily from the first round with a 3-0 over the Stallion and in the quarter-final, they dispatched the Bulls 7-4 over two leg.
The semi-final threw up the newly crowned S-league Champion Home United who had also impressed in their progress in the cup competition.
They defeated the Jaguars 1-0 in the first round and it was sweet revenge for the Protectors who lost their only league match against the Jaguars. In the quarter-final, they show no mercy as they thrashed Woodlands
It was expected to be an epic two leg clash between the two uniform teams but the Warriors show why they had long set the standard in the S-league with a 3-0 victory at Jurong Stadium and surely ending the semi-final tie. At the return leg in Bishan, Protectors had a hard time breaking down the Warriors and only successfully took the lead after half-time but once Ahmad Latiff scored the equalizer, the tie was effective over.
The Warriors victory stop Home United from winning the League and Cup Double.
Meeting the Warriors in the Final was Jurong as the Cobras were surprising everybody with their cup run.
Showing they were not a team, who only know how to defend, the Cobras, after whacking NFL side Mountbatten 7-0 in the third round, went on to outscore the Stags 5-4 over two legs in the quarter-final. Even that pale with what they did in the semi-final against the Tigers.
With both wishing to reach their first ever final, the two legs provided eleven goals as the Cobras defeated Tigers 3-2 at Jurong East before holding them 3-3 at Toa Poyah.
The Cobras now stand on the brink of writing a new chapter in S-league history after almost being thrown into it in pre-season as the first extinct S-league club due to bankruptcy.
In the Tiger Beer
It landed SAFFC their only trophy of the season but it was not enough to save their coach Mladen Pralija his job as it fell short of SAFFC high expectation of a league title every season.
The two uniform clubs now rule dominance over the Singapore football scene with the Protectors winning the league title while the other, the Warriors, won the Tiger Beer Singapore Cup.
It was not just that they had monopolize the two domestic trophies but the way they monopolize the domestic competition overall with all the teams - from current giant Tanjong Pagar United to former giant Geylang United - all appearing to be no match for the two uniform teams financial muscles.
1999 S-league Table
| Teams | W | D | L | GF | GA | Points |
| Home United | 15 | 6 | 1 | 42 | 16 | 51 |
| SAFFC | 14 | 7 | 1 | 63 | 24 | 49 |
| Tanjong Pagar United | 11 | 8 | 3 | 40 | 25 | 41 |
| Geylang United | 9 | 8 | 5 | 33 | 21 | 35 |
| Gombak United | 8 | 8 | 6 | 35 | 35 | 32 |
| Jurong FC | 9 | 4 | 9 | 37 | 32 | 31 |
| Balestier Central | 6 | 8 | 8 | 25 | 27 | 26 |
| Sembawang Rangers | 5 | 8 | 9 | 30 | 26 | 23 |
| Woodlands | 6 | 4 | 12 | 30 | 44 | 22 |
| Tampines Rovers | 4 | 8 | 10 | 25 | 39 | 20 |
| Clementi Khalsa | 3 | 6 | 13 | 29 | 55 | 15 |
| | 3 | 3 | 16 | 21 | 56 | 12 |
| Stage | Home Team | | | Away Team |
| First Round | SAFFC | 3 | 0 | Sembawang Rangers |
| Quarter-final, first leg | Gombak United | 3 | 3 | SAFFC |
| Quarter-final, second leg | SAFFC | 4 | 1 | Gombak United |
| Semi-final, first leg | SAFFC | 3 | 0 | Home United |
| Semi-final, second leg | Home United | 1 | 1 | SAFFC |
Jurong FC route to Cup Final
| Stage | Home Team | | | Away Team |
| First Round | Jurong | 7 | 0 | Mountbatten (NFL) |
| Quarter-final, first leg | Tampines Rovers | 2 | 2 | Jurong |
| Quarter-final, second leg | Jurong | 3 | 2 | Tampines Rovers |
| Semi-final, first leg | Jurong | 3 | 2 | Balestier Central |
| Semi-final, second leg | Balestier Central | 3 | 3 | Jurong |
1999 Singapore Cup Final
| SAFFC | 3-1 | Jurong FC |
| - Mirko Grabovac (2) | ||
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