The State of Singapore Football

Written September 11, 2009 in Personal Jump to comments. This is in response to an article on the Straits Times about Singapore football. By Ivan GN - Binary.com

The state of football in Singapore is, unfortunately, in tatters. For a state which is so fixated by the global leagues such as La Liga and the English Premier League, interest in local football is in the gutters.

15 years ago, almost every Singaporean could name the first XI of our national football team. Now, most can barely name one. I’m quite sure not many people can even name the teams in the S-league. It is not surprising that many of our local stars have decided to leave the S-League for greener pastures else where(Not saying that it’s better else where, as some earlier players have learned). Reports in the Straits Times today painted a grim picture of the state of football in Singapore, which I must say is a fact of reality. FAS seems to be living in an ivory tower with strong beliefs that the S-league, and Singapore football, is triving.

Football officials blame the people. They say that we only support the winners. That is of course a fact. But it happens all over the world. It has always been the most successful teams (in any sport) which attracts the largest crowds. It’s human nature. Instead of blaming people, FAS has to rethink what has gone wrong and how it can make it right. Here I offer some problems I feel plague the S-league.

[For the record, I stopped watching the S-league this year, it was too painful]

It’s boring. No one likes to feel his time is wasted watching a game. The S-league games are so sleep-inducing that it might work better than a sleeping pill. This happens for big teams as well, I cite the Champions League match between Barcelona and Man Utd this year for the same fate. But it’s a common occurance in the S-league. Unfortunately, not much can be done by the FAS here, or can they?

Bad refereeing. Sometimes it seems that the match officials live in the same ivory tower as the FAS. I know it’s not easy to be a referee, and that many arm-chair referees at home think they can do a better job (which we all know it’s not true). But for a professional league, the standard is uncomprehensible. If the players make an effort to play the game right to keep their fans, what right do the officials have to make unfanthomable errors to penalise these teams unfairly, and as an indirect result penalise their fans?

Poor FAS. I have no idea how to make things better either. You can’t fight the glitz of the world famous leagues. The budget of the league is grossly insufficient to pull the stars and performers necessary to form an entertaining league.

It just feels like a damn poverty trap.