Liverpool confirm 15 July pre-season game in Singapore with Crystal Palace

SINGAPORE — Liverpool fans in Singapore, mark 15 July on your calendar as the date when the English Premier League (EPL) giants will make their long-awaited return to the city-state.

The Merseyside club announced on Tuesday (25 April) that their senior squad will be facing FA Cup semi-finalists Crystal Palace at the National Stadium in the Standard Chartered Singapore Trophy pre-season tournament on 15 July, three days after facing Manchester United in another pre-season tie in Bangkok.

There will also be a ticketed open training session at the National Stadium on 14 July.

"We can’t wait to get back to Singapore once again," said Liverpool's commercial director Ben Latty. “We eagerly await the sound of our fans filling the National Stadium in Singapore as we take on Crystal Palace in July, it’s going to be a great finish to our 2022/23 pre-season.”

Palace chairman Steve Parish added: “We know Singapore is full of passionate fans who follow the Premier League from afar and we hope to attract many more supporters to Crystal Palace by the end of our trip.”

This will be the first time in 13 years that the Reds are playing a match in Singapore, and Jurgen Klopp's team could very well arrive as unprecedented Quadruple winners.

The 2019/20 EPL champions have already clinched the Carabao Cup this season, and are still in the mix to land the EPL title, the FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League trophy.

With no major international competitions going on during this off-season, Liverpool fans could see a full-strength senior team visiting Singapore, with world-class players such as Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Virgil van Dijk making the trip.

The announcement was held at Gardens by the Bay, and was graced by ex-Liverpool right-back Jason McAteer and ex-Palace midfielder Andre Moritz, who now plays for Singapore Premier League side Hougang United.

Tickets for the Standard Chartered Singapore Trophy match start from S$149, while the open training session is priced at S$39. All tickets will be available on www.ticketek.com.sg from 17 May. Fans who are keen to get their hands on the tickets can register their interest on the waitlist.

Official match partner Carro will be offering fans early access to purchase premium passes in its advance ticket pre-sale, which will go live on 10 May. There will also be a series of promotion campaigns to win prizes such as an all-expenses-paid trip to catch the matches, training passes, match merchandise and autographed jerseys.

Fans will also be able to tune in to the live telecast of the match on StarHub’s new sports channel, Hub Premier, which will be launched in July. The match will also be available for streaming via StarHub TV+ app on customers’ preferred smart devices, across all broadband or mobile networks.

StarHub holds the rights to the EPL for the upcoming six seasons, and will be showing the matches on Hub Premier next season.

This will be the first time since 2009 that Liverpool are playing a pre-season friendly in Singapore. Back then, the likes of Fernando Torres, Jamie Carragher and Dirk Kuyt helped the Reds to a 5-0 win over a Singapore selection side in front of over 45,000 fans at the old National Stadium.

The Reds were also in Singapore in 2001, a couple of months after completing a hat-trick of cup wins (League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup), and also defeated Singapore 2-0 then. The Reds also came to the city-state for a special training session in 2011, but did not play any match.

Liverpool have a huge following in Asia, but have not visited the continent since 2017, when they played Palace and Leicester City in Hong Kong as part of the Premier League Asia Trophy pre-season tournament.

Palace, meanwhile, will be making their first appearance in Singapore. By then, they would have completed a first season under the management of former Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira, who has admirably installed an attractive playing style at the club while keeping them at a respectable mid-table position in the EPL.

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