New high-performance sport entity SpexSG will have more operational freedom, funding flexibility: Experts

SINGAPORE – A new high-performance entity, Sports Excellence Singapore (SpexSG), will be launched on April 1 to consolidate the High Performance Sport Institute (HPSI), Singapore Sports School (SSP) and national football project Unleash the Roar! (UTR!).

The announcement was made by Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth David Neo during the parliamentary debate on the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth’s (MCCY) budget on March 5.

SpexSG will operate as a newly formed company limited by guarantee (CLG), the ministry confirmed in response to queries from The Straits Times.

While each entity will retain its own branding and identity, the consolidation will transform the end-to-end journey of national athletes to make it more integrated and seamless.

Athletes can look forward to enhanced athlete-centric support through key life transitions, a more integrated and effective youth-to-senior support framework as the three organisations streamline their functions, and targeted scientific and medical support aligned with athletes’ performance trajectory and potential.

Speaking in Parliament, Mr Neo said this consolidation will “materially transform the sporting ecosystem for the better”.

He added: “Our athletes will see more dedicated and consistent support across sports, and as a system, we reap synergies that we otherwise would not if the entities remain separated. Above all, SpexSG will transform the end-to-end journey of our national athletes to be a lot more integrated and seamless.”

The new CLG will also have more operational freedom and funding flexibility, experts told ST.

A CLG is usually formed to carry out non-profit-making activities that have some public or national interest, such as arts promotion. Some notable CLGs include the National University of Singapore, Temasek Foundation and The Esplanade Co.

In response to queries on how the move came about, an MCCY spokesperson said that it had conducted “a series of engagement sessions under the Kallang Alive Masterplan with athletes and stakeholders across the high-performance sport ecosystem”.

Through these engagements, it identified opportunities to provide more seamless support across the youth-to-senior pathway, strengthen coordination among stakeholders, and better integrate athlete support services.

Mr James Walton, sports business group leader of Deloitte Asia Pacific and South-east Asia, called the move “absolutely positive” for local sports.

He said: “It really comes down to operational freedom. As long as you are part of the Government, you have to follow strict rules regarding headcount and foreign quotas, which makes increasing staff or hiring foreign talent quite difficult. The key word here is ‘agile’. As a CLG, you can make a decision and execute it in a way that simply wasn’t possible under standard bureaucracy.

“In sports, the ability to recruit top talent is incredibly competitive. If this structure means they can decide to increase headcount tomorrow to address an immediate need, it gives them a crucial edge. The ability to move fast in a competitive environment is everything, and in modern sports, it is very important.”

Mr Oon Jin Teik, former chief executive of the Singapore Sports Hub and Singapore Sports Council, now known as The Kallang and SportSG, respectively, said moving to a CLG structure – a separate legal entity that can function like a business without focusing on profit distribution to shareholders – is likely to enhance funding flexibility and attract global talent.

He said: “First, they will be able to hire more people, and there will be more flexibility and release from the limitation of being a government entity. There will also be an ability to drive greater revenue generation, which can fund enhancements to sports science or further support Singapore sports.”

However, Mr Oon added that SpexSG’s success will bank on recruiting the right people and effective governance. He also noted that a structural shift is meaningless without a clear destination and the right support.

He added: “If you want to develop the next Joseph Schooling, you can’t bring a graduate without true high-performance sports knowledge, expertise and experience as a sports scientist and tell him to prepare Schooling for a major Games. Because what relevant expertise would he bring? You need people one step ahead of the athletes to build a successful high-performance sports system.”

The latest development comes after the announcement in March 2025 that the Singapore Sport Institute (SSI), National Youth Sports Institute (NYSI) and SSP would be consolidated under a single entity.

On April 1, 2025, SSI and NYSI first merged to form a new sports institute, the HPSI, which is based at The Kallang and SSP’s Woodlands campus.

It was announced in 2024 that SSP will move its campus from Woodlands to Kallang as part of the Kallang Alive Masterplan, a comprehensive strategy by the Government to rejuvenate the area and turn it into the home of Singapore athletes as well as a sports district.

Opened in 2011, SSI provides support for national athletes in the areas of high-performance sports, athlete life, sports science and sports medicine, while NYSI was launched in 2015 to add value to and improve the youth sports ecosystem.

UTR! is a project launched by the Government in 2021 to improve and transform Singapore football. Through UTR!, aspiring young players get support and development opportunities through various avenues such as overseas scholarships, the Singapore Youth League and School Football Academy to set them up for success.

Mr Neo also announced on March 5 a new $10 million grant to encourage the formation of multi-school co-curricular activity (CCA) teams.

He said that with schools taking in smaller cohorts and students having more diverse interests, some schools may not have enough students to start a particular CCA.

Strategic Partnership CCAs were introduced by MCCY and the Ministry of Education so that more students can participate in the CCA of their choice, Mr Neo added.

He said: “We will launch more in the next few years. As a ground-up initiative, some schools have also come together to form multi-school CCA Teams. For example, ACS (Barker Road) and Queensway Secondary came together to form a hockey team that trained together and competed at the National School Games.”

To encourage more collaborations, each team will receive $200,000 over four years to be invested among the partner schools. This funding can partially fund facility, transportation or coaching costs.