SINGAPORE – The Lions’ much-anticipated Asian Cup campaign will be delayed, following the Asian Football Confederation (AFC)’s confirmation on Nov 3 that the 2027 tournament will be pushed back to December amid escalating security concerns in Saudi Arabia.

The tournament is now scheduled to be held from Dec 23, 2027, to Jan 21, 2028.

The 24-team continental football championship had been scheduled for Jan 5 to Feb 7 in Saudi cities Jeddah, Riyadh and Al Khobar before this 11-month postponement.

Singapore had secured a historic qualification to the Asian Cup with a 2-1 win over Hong Kong in November 2025. They also ended their qualification campaign unbeaten with four wins and two draws after home and away matches against Hong Kong, India and Bangladesh.

The Lions were later drawn with heavyweights Australia and Iraq, and Tajikistan in Group D for the tournament.

The staging of Asia’s premier football tournament had come under serious doubt in recent weeks after the kingdom came under sustained attack in a dramatic escalation in the war in the Middle East with the Iran-backed Houthi group, an armed political and religious group from northern Yemen.

The Houthis – who have been retaliating for the kingdom’s backing of Yemeni government forces in the Yemen war that restarted in September, reignited by the US-Iran confrontation in the Gulf – have targeted airports, ports and oil facilities with ballistic missiles and drones.

The King Khalid International airport in Jeddah , the kingdom’s second-busiest after Jeddah, has been struck repeatedly, including an attack on Oct 10 that killed at least 13 people, the deadliest in the kingdom in more than a decade.

Three matches in Saudi domestic football, including one involving Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr, were postponed in October while the exhibition Six Kings Slam tennis tournament originally scheduled for October and due to include Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev, was pushed back to the end of December.

Five of the 2027 Asian Cup’s eight venues are in Riyadh. In total, 31 matches including the final were scheduled to be held in the Saudi capital.

Singapore were scheduled to kick off their campaign on Jan 9 against Australia at the Aramco Stadium in Khobar, then face Tajikistan on Jan 14 at the Imam Mohammed Ibn Saud University Stadium in Riyadh before a final group game against Iraq on Jan 19 back at the Aramco venue.

The top two teams from each of the six groups and the four best third-place sides would qualify for the knockout stage.

The attacks in Saudi Arabia have also wreaked havoc with air travel. Singapore Airlines (SIA) postponed the launch of its services to Riyadh until March 28 and had extended the cancellation of its flights between Singapore and Dubai to February 2027.

Flights SQ494 (Singapore to Dubai) and SQ495 (Dubai to Singapore) have been cancelled until Feb 28, 2027, owing to the geopolitical situation in the Middle East, the national carrier said in an advisory posted on Facebook on Oct 30.

The latest extension followed earlier suspensions of the flights, which SIA previously operated daily.

Scoot, the budget arm of SIA also extended the cancellation of its flights between Singapore and Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah to February 2027.

Flights TR796 (Singapore to Jeddah) and TR797 (Jeddah to Singapore) will be suspended until Feb 28, owing to the geopolitical situation in the Middle East, the airline said in an advisory on Nov 2. This latest extension followed the airline’s earlier suspensions of the thrice-weekly service to the Saudi Arabian city.

How Asian Cup postponement affects the Lions, FAS

Head coach Gavin Lee and his coaching staff will now need to redraw their plans for the Lions.

Singapore, who will face Paraguay on Nov 13 and Brazil on Nov 17 at The Kallang’s National Stadium as part of preparations for the Asian Cup, relied on a core group of ageing warhorses during the historic qualification journey.

But come December, captain Hariss Harun, key forward Shawal Anuar and defensive stalwart Safuwan Baharudin will be 36 while goalkeeper Izwan Mahbud will be 37.

Naturalised midfield duo Kyoga Nakamura and Song Ui-young will be 31 and 33 respectively.

With the need to refresh the squad and build for the future becoming increasingly apparent, Lee will have to place greater emphasis on identifying and integrating promising youngsters who can inject fresh energy and hunger into the side.

Meanwhile, the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) will now need to relook its planning for the ongoing Singapore Premier League (SPL) season.

It had not scheduled SPL matches in December 2026 and January 2027 due to the Asian Cup.

The Lions played in the Asian Cup just once, in 1984, and did not need to qualify as they hosted the 10-team tournament. They did not advance to the semi-finals after beating India 2-0, losing 2-0 to China and 1-0 to the UAE, and drawing 1-1 with Iran.