Manchester City will become the first English Premier League side in seven years to play in Singapore as they plan an Asian Tour in May.

According to Tuesday's Singapore newspaper Straits Times, the Man. City club, owned by former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, hope to face the Singaporean national side between May 14 and 20.

"Mr. Thaksin will be with the team and he hopes this tour will give the people of Asia a chance to get close to the City players," City's executive director Taweesuk Jack Srisumrid told the broadsheet.

Other stops of the English club's tour are Hong Kong, Macao, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur.

The team has promised to bring their full complement of first team players on the tour, as an announcement confirming the tour details is expected by the end of the week.

Liverpool and Manchester United were the last Premier League teams to visit Singapore back in 2001.

(Xinhua News Agency March 26, 2008)