Mission Statement
Shanghai Premier League aims to provide football competitions in Shanghai that are Fun, Fair and Friendly in spirit.
History
The SPL was founded in 2001. At that time there was only one International Men’s League in Shanghai, however the location of the fields was all the way back in Tianma and the long traveltime was a concern for some of the players.
In those years the development of Pudong was really amazing and fast and more foreigers came to work and live in Pudong. We took the chance to start our own league in Pudong. We were fortunate to find one of the best locations in Pudong.
We are playing on a real grass field in the heart of Greencity, a special developed area in Pudong Jinqiao. The local government company Goldenbridge has invested and built property especially designed for foreigners and built several international schools, hospitals, hotels, fitness-centre and restaurants and bars as well shopping malls like Carrefour.
Our league over the years has developed very good relationships with the Goldenbridge company and we have good relationships with the schools and restaurants as well. Some of them are sponsoring one or more of our teams.
Currently we are having 8 teams competing every Sunday from October until May. Each team has over 15 members. Most of the teams represent a different country and different culture. We have teams from Japan,Italy,France,Belgium,England,America and some are multi cultural teams. Actually we call our league "The United Nations" as through football we are able to learn the other countries culture and we all aim to become good friends.
Our goal is to have a strong Competition and most important to us is the Football, Friendship and Fun. We call it the 3 F concept actually 4 F as Fairplay is important of course but in China 4 is unlucky so we stick to the 3 F’s.
We want to expand our league to more teams as there are more foreigners coming to China and by having more teams the competition level will increase, which will be even more interesting for players, supporters and sponsors !!
We have organized together with the Goldenbridge company a very successful " mini-world cup" during the FIFA world cup 2006 which was broadcast on national TV in China and appeared in several magazine throughout Asia.
We hope in the future more players and supporters and sponsors can enjoy and share this unique feeling of being part of "The United Nations" and the best International Football league in China !
Sincerely Yours,
Freek Boelen / SPL President