$40 million gift from Stamford graduate Forrest Li and wife Liqian Ma earmarked for sports on their home turf
Forrest Li, who earned his MBA at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business in California and his Sea Limited has made a $40 million commitment to transform the long-term future of Singapore football, in what is believed to be the largest-ever donation from a company to the local game.
Fronted by chairman and chief executive officer Forrest Li, the home-grown tech group unveiled the pledge just ahead of the Lions’ dead-rubber Asian Cup qualifier against Bangladesh, turning a routine fixture into a symbolic marker of new ambition for the sport.
Sea revealed that just under $8 million has already been donated to the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) at the start of 2026, with a further sum of a little over $31 million to be progressively disbursed.
The money is earmarked to “support meaningful initiatives that can broaden participation, strengthen development pathways, and contribute to the growth of a more vibrant football ecosystem in Singapore.”
The company has stressed that it intends to work closely with the government and the wider football community to ensure the funding is deployed effectively, positioning the commitment as catalytic, long-term capital rather than a one-off windfall.
Li, who wears the dual hats of Sea chairman/CEO and FAS president, has consistently framed the move as community-focused philanthropy rather than corporate promotion. He said football can play a powerful role in bringing communities together, building character and opening up opportunities for young people, underscoring the social returns he believes the game can generate.
Football, he added, has a unique ability to forge connections and inspire pride and joy through a shared sense of purpose, and with Sea’s donation, he hopes to support the long-term development of football in Singapore and give back to the community that has played such an important role in the company’s journey.
Ahead of the Bangladesh tie, the FAS staged a partner appreciation ceremony at the National Stadium to thank existing backers and call for “sustained collaboration to build on recent progress and strengthen the game across all levels”.
The event drew President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Law Minister Edwin Tong, and Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth and for Transport Baey Yam Keng – a line-up that underscored how closely Singapore’s political establishment is tracking the sport’s trajectory.
Addressing guests, Li argued that the Lions’ recent success must be a starting point, not a one-off, and announced that MSIG Insurance Singapore had agreed a “generous three-year sponsorship, starting in April”, before urging more corporates and high-net-worth individuals to step up.
“Every person and organization in this room wants Singapore to put on a strong showing at the Asian Cup and for this historic qualification to not be a one-off in history but to be repeated again and again. Our Lions can do it if we give them the help they need,” he said. “I greatly hope to see many more companies and stakeholders step forward to help Singapore football. We cannot do this without you.”
Sea’s $40 million pledge is only the latest and largest step in a deliberate, decade-long effort by Li and the company to build football infrastructure and pathways in Singapore.
In 2016, Sea’s gaming arm Garena sponsored the Young Lions, the Singapore Premier League (SPL) developmental side, backing a project aimed squarely at nurturing local talent. Four years later, Sea acquired Home United and privatized it into Lion City Sailors, making it the SPL’s first fully privatized club and a test case for professionalizing the domestic game.
In 2022, the Sailors opened a training center at Mattar Road costing in the region of $7.5–$8 million, a 28,000 sq m complex with world-class facilities that the club billed as a new benchmark for the region.
In 2024, the Asian Football Confederation endorsed the Lion City Sailors Football Academy as a two-star academy under its Elite Youth Scheme—one of only four such academies recognized in Southeast Asia—validating the club’s investment in structured youth development.
On the pitch, that investment translated into a run to the AFC Champions League Two final in 2025, where the Sailors lost narrowly 2-1 to United Arab Emirates side Sharjah FC.
The national team has ridden its own wave of momentum. After the Lions secured historic qualification to the 2027 Asian Cup with a 2-1 win in Hong Kong in November 2025, Li announced that he would personally reward the squad with around $1.5–$1.6 million in bonuses for their campaign performances, paid out of his own pocket. The gesture underscored how deeply his personal philanthropy is now intertwined with the fortunes of Singapore football, extending beyond corporate largesse.
Although Li is best known today as a naturalized Singapore citizen and local football power broker, his worldview and approach have been shaped in part by the United States.
He earned his MBA at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business in California, taking on a heavy student loan burden to do so and immersing himself in Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial culture.
He has cited hearing Steve Jobs’ “stay hungry, stay foolish” Stanford commencement address as a turning point that pushed him toward founding his own company, helping crystallize the risk-taking mindset behind Sea’s eventual rise. The sea itself is tightly linked to the US capital markets.
The company listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2017 under the ticker “SE”, in an initial public offering that raised about $1 billion and opened the door to a broad base of American institutional and retail investors.
Li also maintains an ongoing institutional tie to the United States through his service on the advisory council of Stanford GSB. These educational and financial connections mean that the capital and ideas underpinning his Singapore-centric football philanthropy have, in part, been shaped and amplified in the US – from the lecture halls of Stanford to the trading floors of New York.
Within Singapore’s sports business circles, Sea’s pledge – just shy of $39 million in total—has been hailed as a “really fantastic injection” for a sport that has long struggled with funding constraints. Yet it is also seen as a test of the system’s ability to absorb and wisely deploy a windfall. James Walton, sports business group leader at Deloitte Asia Pacific and Southeast Asia, welcomed the move but sounded a note of caution when asked whether it would spark a rush of other investors.
He noted that some may now feel “Singapore football has enough money” given the existing government support and Sea’s outsized role. Still, he expressed hope that the pledge would encourage other affluent individuals and corporations to consider how they might support Singapore sports more broadly, pointing out that in other disciplines—from badminton and aquatics to fencing, table tennis, and netball—even high six- to low seven-figure sums in dollar terms could be transformative.
Football commentator and former SPL coach Khidhir Khamis said he was not surprised by Sea’s commitment, noting that such a move had been widely expected once Li signaled his intention to become FAS president.
“This is big news for Singapore football, and it is a huge sum of money. I hope the money goes into youth development and the SPL and that there is a proper plan for its usage,” he said.
“This is an exciting time for Singapore football.” Lions captain Hariss Harun echoed that sentiment but emphasized execution, calling the donation “a good sign” and “a start” that must be matched by putting “the money in the right place.” Head coach Gavin Lee described it as “a fantastic time to be involved in Singapore football” and highlighted how increased resources could help Singapore arrange more fixtures against stronger regional and continental opposition – the kind of “hostile environments” and “big crowds” that sharpen competitive edges.
Sea’s philanthropy extends beyond sport. In 2021, the company donated roughly $39 million to the National University of Singapore (NUS) to support research and education in computing, then the largest corporate gift NUS had received in that field.
That landmark gift helped cement Sea’s reputation as a leading corporate philanthropist in Singapore’s technology ecosystem and signaled Li’s interest in building human capital for the digital economy.
Viewed alongside the new football commitment, the two headline gifts—each in the region of $40 million—suggest a dual-track strategy: investing in the skills needed for Singapore’s future economy and in the social fabric that binds its communities together. In both cases, the beneficiaries—a national university and the country’s most popular sport—sit at the heart of public life and have the potential to touch millions of Singaporeans.
For Li personally, and for Sea as a company, this $40 million football pledge cements their position at the center of Singapore’s evolving sports philanthropy landscape.
It raises expectations about what deep-pocketed founders and corporates can do—but it also raises the bar for transparency, governance, and measurable results. If the funds broaden grassroots participation, improve coaching, create clearer development pathways, and help sustain a competitive national team, Li’s move will likely be remembered as a turning point in the modern history of Singapore football.