I will not comment on the performance of the team that represented Singapore in the recently concluded
Lion City Cup (LCC) tournament, as I did not watch any of the four matches played in the competition that helped to inspire the creation of the FIFA U16 World Cup in 1985.
I remembered the first LCC I watched was the 1991 edition in which the final I witnessed an impressive Myanmar U16 defeated their Singapore counterparts at the
Toa Payoh Stadium which was packed to the rafters.
I witnessed a Singapore victory years later when they beat Hong Kong 1-0 at the old Jalan Besar Stadium in 1995.
Since 2015, including the recent editions of 2023 and the
recently concluded tournament won by J1 League club Tokyo Verdy, the competition has turned into a four-team format, which I believe it did little to enhance the usefulness of the tournament that churned out numerous talented players who went on to represent Singapore at the senior level.
Instead of the knock-out format that has been used since the 2015 edition, where the two losing teams compete in a 3rd/4th place match, some have suggested introducing a round-robin tournament. This format would allow all teams to play against each other, with the team accumulating the most points being declared the winning side.
The round-robin format appears to be a more practical option if the LCC is to continue as a four-team tournament in the coming years.
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