Hougang United Football Club is a professional football club based in Hougang, Singapore. The club competes in the Singapore Premier League, the top tier of Singaporean football. Founded in 1998 as Marine Castle United, the club changed its name to Hougang United in 2011. Nicknamed the Cheetahs, Hougang United has played its home games at Hougang Stadium since its formation.
Currently, the club is playing its home games at the Bishan Stadium, as the Hougang Stadium is undergoing renovation.
The club was founded as Marine Castle United Football Club in 1988 as a National Football League team which was formed by Newcastle United fans in the Marine Parade area. The club was nicknamed the Dolphins.
In 1998, the club managed to enter the S.League but struggled in its early foray in the first few years, finishing in the bottom two for the next four seasons. The club's chairman was Dilwant Singh who became the club manager and head coach of the prime league team throughout his time at the club.
Marine Castle then changed its name to Sengkang Marine Football Club in 2002 and the Dilwant was succeeded by David Rowe in which Dilwant became the assistant head coach. Sengkang Marine then went on to finish in 8th position consecutively, its highest-ever finish in its short history.
While improving in the S.League, financial difficulties then forced Sengkang Marine out of the S.League in 2004.
In January 2006, Sengkang Marine merged with new club Paya Lebar-Punggol Football Club to form Sengkang Punggol Football Club with the club logo featuring a dolphin with the team colour being sea blue. In September, Singapore-based Orientus Asia Hotels and Resorts, a five-month old company, became the main sponsor of the club with a sponsorship deal worth $250,000 in cash till December 2007.
The club continued to play in the league but never went higher than 10th.
On 1 January 2011, the chairman of Sengkang Punggol Football Club, Bill Ng, announced the changes that began the rewriting of another chapter of the football club. With improved financial status and a change in name to the present Hougang United Football Club, there has been renewed optimism among the Hougang fan base around the club's home stadium since its inception, Hougang Stadium. The club also had its fair share of marquee players in the earlier days such as Michael Currie, who formerly played for Queens Park Rangers). Conversely, Grant Holt began his early career at the club, before going on to play for upper-division clubs in England, such as Nottingham Forest and Norwich City in the English Premier League.
In November 2014, it was announced that Hougang United and Woodlands Wellington will merge for the 2015 season.
Hougang United made their AFC Cup debut in the 2020 AFC Cup but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament got cancelled thus only winning one match against Laos side, Lao Toyota 1âÂÂ3 at the New Laos National Stadium in Vientiane. The Cheetahs also qualified for the 2022 AFC Cup group stage where they play all their match in a centralised venue at the Thá»Âng Nhất Stadium in Vietnam which saw Hougang United finishing 2nd out of 4th place winning 4âÂÂ3 against Cambodian side, Phnom Penh Crown and defeating Laos side, Young Elephants 1âÂÂ3 before suffering a heavy defeat to Vietnamese club, Viettel 5âÂÂ2.
On 19 November 2022, under the lead of caretaker manager Firdaus Kassim, Hougang United defeated defending champions, Tampines Rovers 3âÂÂ2 in the 2022 Singapore Cup final in which Kristijan KrajÃÂek scored a hat-trick to secure The Cheetahs their first-ever silverware.
The club also finished 5th in the Singapore Premier League in the same season which meant they failed to qualify for any continental competitions but due to their Singapore Cup win, they snatched an AFC Cup spot from fellow Singapore Premier League club, Geylang International. Hougang United started off their 2023âÂÂ24 AFC Cup campaign with a trip to Kota Kinabalu facing Sabah on 21 September 2023 where they played their first fixtures in a heavy downpour which they suffered a 3âÂÂ1 away loss however in the next match against Haiphong at the Jalan Besar Stadium, Hougang United bounced back from 1âÂÂ0 down as ÃÂorÃÂe Maksimoviàscored a brace in the last 10 minute in the game to settled for a 2âÂÂ1 victory as the Cheetahs collected the 3 points. Hougang United went on to have a great run in the 2023 Singapore Cup where they reached the final but were unable to retain their cup.
While preparing for the 2025âÂÂ26 season, Hougang United was force to focus on regional players due to the club tight budget for the season, the club then signed an apparel partnership with Volt, a sportswear brand from Thailand. Hougang United then went on to signed Yotsakorn Burapha, Settawut Wongsai, Chonlawit Kanuengkid, Kanok Kongsimma, Parinya Nusong and later Saharat Panmarchya in the January 2026 transfer window where Hougang United is coach by Pannarai Pansiri on an interim basis.
In March 2026, the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) discovered Hougang had fielded an ineligible foreign player Gloire Amanda, a Tanzanian-born Canadian citizen, in SPL and SPL2 matches. Hougang had submitted Amanda's work permit application to the FAS but not the approved work permit as Amanda had yet to receive his work permit. Prior to discovery, Amanda had played three matches, two in SPL and one in SPL2. FAS fined Hougang and overturned the results for the 1-0 win against BG Tampines Rovers in SPL2 to a 0-3 loss and the 2-0 win against the Young Lions in the SPL to a 0-3 loss also. The other match against Lion City Sailors in the SPL which was a 1-5 loss remains unchanged as it is a greater margin than 0-3. As a result, Hougang dropped from fifth to sixth in the table.
The club uniquely has an enthusiastic supporters' club known as the Hougang HOOLS (Hougang Only One Love), which was established in 2010.
There is also a fan website representing the Hougang support as a whole: https://www.hougangunitedfans.com/ The site features a blog, forum, players roster and a list of content creators who also bleed Hougang.
The hashtag #1H1H (Satu Hati Satu Hougang) or (One Heart One Hougang) was made popular by the supporters and had been featured on the 2023 Jersey.
On 22 November 2014, Hougang United announced a partnership with Global Football Academy for the 2015 S.League season. On 16 November 2021, Hougang United announced the signing of the main sponsorship with The Physio Circle for 3 years starting from 2022 to 2024.
On 19 October 2022, Hougang United announced the signing of sponsorship with Advance Capital Partners Pte Ltd for its women's team competing in the FAS Women's Premier League.
The Hougang United Scholarship was launched in May 2015. The scholarship aims to support and facilitate the academic development of young non-professional footballing talents.
The Cheetah's home ground is based at the Hougang Stadium. The stadium has a capacity of 3,800 people. They were the tenant at the stadium from 1998 until 2023 before moving out to the Jalan Besar Stadium temporarily for the season due to renovation works. The club was once the sole club to play in a stadium in the north-eastern part of Singapore but since the implementation of VAR for the 2023 Singapore Premier League season, the club has been forced to move to the Jalan Besar Stadium as their new home stadium for the time being. Since the 2nd half of season 2025/2026, the club had been forced to be based in Bishan stadium so that Jalan Besar stadium can be allocated to Lion City Sailors. In view of being a club that represent the north east region, the club supporters had rallied for the possibility to move back to Hougang stadium or to be based at the newly built, Punggol Sport hub stadium.
<sup>U23</sup>
<sup>U23</sup>
<sup>U21</sup> <sup>U21</sup> <sup>U21</sup> <sup>U21</sup> <sup>U23</sup> <sup>U21</sup> <sup>U21</sup> <sup>U21</sup> <sup>U21</sup> <sup>U23</sup> <sup>U21</sup>
<sup>FP U21</sup> <sup>FP U21</sup> <sup>FP U21</sup> <sup>U23</sup> <sup>U21</sup> <sup>FP U21</sup> <sup>U21</sup> <sup>U21</sup> <sup>U21</sup> <sup>U21</sup> <sup>U21</sup>
(National Service until 2025, to Young Lions) (National Service until 2026) (National Service until 2026) (National Service until 2026, to Young Lions)
Cup
As of 3 March 2026.
The following table provides a summary of the coach appointed by the club.