By Dhilan (22S03R), Captain, Manish (22S06E), Vice Captain, Norman (22S03H), Vice Captain, Adithya (22S03J), Quartermaster and Sholan (22S03G), Quartermaster

Believe. Desire. Teamwork. RAFFLES. 

Football, the beautiful game. If you want to be a champion, this is the CCA for you.

Are you new to football and wonder if you’re up to join us? Fret not – as we are a developmental CCA, many of our members have close to no experience, and that’s okay! We cherish all members equally regardless of experience. Plus, we help each other out to become better players. 

That being said, Mr Iqbal, our coach and mentor and Mr Sunderaj, sets high expectations for us, and pushes us to improve every training. Mr Iqbal is a strict yet fatherly figure that never fails to crack jokes and banter with the team during training (still, you don’t want to mess with him). Nevertheless, he is an excellent coach that you can look forward to seeing during training. He has terrific knowledge on football-specific methods such as drills, workouts, injury prevention and recovery methods that can help you improve and optimise your game, even if you are a total beginner.

We value all our members and treat each other as brothers. On the pitch, we learn values like discipline, perseverance, and teamwork. We are willing to give our all for our team. We stay positive and give our best even in trying times like now. These are the qualities we are proud to have as the RI Football Squad. 

We train thrice a week, from 4:30 to 7:30PM. It may seem like a lot, but we enjoy every single moment of it (Do prepare for your legs to be exhausted though!). After all, it is all worth the effort when our efforts pay off in the A Division competition, and when we look back at the countless memories made during training. Unfortunately, we have not had an opportunity to participate in the last 2 years due to the pandemic, but are hopeful for the chance to in the coming year. 

Our training sessions are as follows: For Year 5s, we will start off with the basics (touches, passing and agility). We usually end training with a proper full-field game. Mr Iqbal supplements all this with runs too. On Wednesdays, we focus on the technical aspect of our games by doing more advanced, targeted drills for specific positions and roles on the field. As we progress into Year 6, we will begin to increase stamina building exercises like runs and interval workouts in order to prepare for the season. Recently, during restrictions that have suspended in-person CCA, we have been doing runs and workouts on our own to build our stamina and physicality basic drills with the ball. Apart from this, we do have football matches video-analysis sessions to iron out any mistakes we may be making, and learn from other teams and clubs.

We top everything off with our very own cheer,  “BELIEVE. DESIRE. TEAMWORK. RAFFLES” as a team to express our pride and joy being part of a tight-knit family that is RI Football. We welcome you to our CCA with open arms.

*Cover image taken in accordance with SMMs during the prior phase of Covid-19 measures.