Month: June 2026

The Lion City Sailors today (5 June) learnt their opponents for the upcoming 2026/27 ASEAN Club Championship (ACC) Shopee Cup, following the conclusion of the Official Draw at Studio RCTI+ in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The reigning Singapore Premier League (SPL) champions will face 2025/26 Thai League runners-up Port FC, 12-time Malaysian Super League winners Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT), V.League 1 champions Công An Hà Nội (CAHN) FC, Cambodian Premier League winners PKR Svay Rieng, Indonesia Super League champions Persib Bandung, and the winner of a two-legged playoff tie between Laos’ Ezra FC or Myanmar’s Shan United, after being placed in Group B.

The draw means a Causeway derby with JDT is on the cards for a second straight Shopee Cup campaign, with the Sailors having lost 3-1 away to their rivals in last season’s opening group-stage fixture.

It also means the Sailors will face familiar foes Persib for a third straight season in international competition, after meeting the Indonesian side on four occasions across the 2024/25 and 2025/26 AFC Champions League Two campaigns.

There are also tantalising reunions with opponents the Sailors have faced in the past, including Port, CAHN, a potential clash with Shan, while the Sailors will meet Svay Rieng for a second successive Shopee Cup campaign.

Meanwhile, Group A consists of Malaysia’s Kuching FC, fellow SPL representatives BG Tampines Rovers, the 2025/26 Vietnamese Cup winners (to be confirmed on 14 June), Indonesia’s Borneo FC Samarinda, the winner of the playoff tie between Brunei’s Kasuka FC and Philippines’ Manila Digger, as well as two Thai clubs in defending champions Buriram United and Ratchaburi FC.

The Sailors will fly the Singapore flag once more in the third edition of Southeast Asia’s premier club competition, with the group stage kicking off in October.

With matches played in a single round-robin format, each team will play three home and three away matches, with the top four teams from each group advancing to the quarter-finals.

The previous edition concluded just over a week ago, with Buriram defeating Selangor FC 3-1 on aggregate to successfully defend their crown.

For the Sailors, the objective is clear: to progress to the knockout stages after falling short in the competition’s first two editions.

“The Shopee Cup is an important competition for us to measure ourselves against the region’s best, and we felt we ought to have done better,” said captain Hariss Harun.

“It’s an interesting draw for us, especially to face JDT and Persib again and also to come up against teams we have faced in the past. We want to qualify for the quarter-finals and try to make a deep run this time round.”

The Sailors’ full fixtures list for the 2026/27 ACC Shopee Cup will be confirmed in due course.