By Les Tan.
The Vietnamese fans who cheered their hearts out had to deal with rowdy Singaporeans who attacked them after the game. (Photo © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
National Stadium, Sunday, December 21, 2008 – Some Singaporeans showed last night what idiots they were when they criminally attacked Vietnamese supporters who were celebrating outside the stadium after the game, leaving some with bloodied faces.
Singapore lost 0-1 last night in the second leg semi-final of the ASEAN Football Championship against Vietnam and for some ‘fans’, it was apparently too much to bear.
Wrote a participant in online forum kallangroar.com, andy_88: “Was very upset with some of the Singapore fans, especially after the match. I saw very ugly scenes when exiting the stadium, Vietnam supporters being pushed around and their flag being taken away by Singapore supporters. The worst of it was some Singapore supporter who started burning the Vietnam flag and behaved as if it is a heroic act.”
The scene outside the stadium left some folks fearful for their safety, especially those with children. Another participant in the forum, Firdaus1990, recounted what he saw.
“At the East Entrance fights were breaking out and I saw a Malay uncle grabbing his baby and running down the steps because it was getting out of hand and his family had the risk of being caught up in it. The Malay uncle had a couple of kids too and what if he had fallen?
I personally had to grab a Vietnamese fan and push him back because he was in a blind panic and he nearly ran headlong into my girlfriend and could have knocked her down. I feel sorry for him because he was being chased by the crowd.
I saw people being funny and blocking ambulances when it’s obvious people were being hurt.
Somebody grabbed a Vietnamese flag somewhere and they were burning it when a CISCO officer came flying in with his baton.
I was at the overhead bridge when I saw a couple of Vietnamese being brutally punched in their faces. Their faces were bleeding pretty heavily.
I am ashamed at the behaviour of large numbers of our fans. Totally crossed over the line. Most of all I am angry that there was insufficient police protection and organization. Those CISCO cops were almost helpless.”
To abuse our Vietnamese guests while they are in town supporting their team is a shameful display by so-called Singaporean fans. It’s not reflective of the majority of peace-loving Singaporeans obviously but it only takes a few idiots to spoil everyone’s name.
All Singaporeans will agree that the police should throw the book at these mobsters and put them away in jail.
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"Four or five hit me on the face…two or three Singaporeans came to help me out." – a Vietnamese fan recounts a scary night
Have you ever heard, seen or read that some rival football fans were beaten up in a international match in Vietnam ( even wenn we lost – with Thailand, in Asian cup 07,… or Singapore 1998 )?
I didn’t think it is dangerous in a football match in Singapore, because Singapore is famous for cleanness and order. Anyway I think those people are only uneducated minority in Singapore. But the police should do more before something earnest happen.
@Lions: If you remember right, who walked away back in 1998 with the Tiger cup champion title? Singapore right? And who were the losing side? Vietnam right? Did such accident like this happen back then? No? How many time we’ve got beaten by other team right in our homeland? Many times…how many times newspaper public about our inhospitality? NONE!!!!. I’m proud that Vietnamese fans got their behaviour in control.
i was at the stadium and to be honest, the blame is not to be fully put on the singapore fans. yes, they were at fault by burning the vietnam flag but take time off to think what really sparked the violence. it was dumb of some vietnam fans to wave the vietnam flags at the singapore fans’s faces and aggravating the whole situation when they knew the atmosphere was tense. any normal human being would have been pissed at their attempt to add salt to injury. it was also wrong of the viet fans to continue taunting even when warned by cisco officers to back off. even when surrounded by singapore fans, one vietnam fan even continued to wave his countrys flag and this prompted the flag burning.
@lions:
To say the Vietnamese deserved to be beaten up and have their flag burnt after a football game, well, I don’t think I can agree with that statement under any circumstance.
If Singaporeans went to Hanoi, and beat them unexpectedly in an emotionally-charged game, if you were there, you would hope to leave the My Dinh Stadium with your flesh intact and your bones unbroken.
If we beat Vietnam unexpectedly, some of us would be celebrating in their faces too. So you can’t blame the Vietnamese for celebrating. They won fair and square. So kudos to them.
In four games, our Singapore team have never beaten them (0-0, 2-2, 0-0, 0-1).
All three goals we conceded were mistakes on our part (silly penalty given away and defence not alert not picking up their man).
I think to be fair to poon, he has singapore’s best interest at heart and doesn’t want to see our name blackened. So I think on an emotional level, some of us don’t like to read about such negative Singaporean traits.
Obviously since this isn’t just my little old blog anymore, I felt I should put the story out after two different people in an online forum mentioned the same incident (flag burning, beatings).
I didn’t see it myself but since two different fellows mentioned the same incident, it sounded credible. Of course, they can make it up.
In the meantime, I am checking around to verify the story and so for those who are skeptical about the truth of this matter, you are right to be skeptical and should remain so.
Poon,
What a shame on you… That’s all I can say.
This story is not for internal review anymore. It has been brought back to Vietnam and it is posted by other international websites as well. Nobody talks about the match anymore but the bad behaviour of such uneducated Singaporeans. Although this is just a small group of Singaporeans, it does dillute the safety image that many SIngaporeans have tried to build so far.
I have completely no idea about ’tis even i’m Vietnamese, and for those who were not at that place that time, just pay some silence, shut up and go. I don’t really trust this article or some in Vietnamese newspaper because smoke is always caused by fire. Singaporeans were not too right, but they were not wrong anyhow.
In my point of view, we (Vietnamese or Singaporeans) should re-build our relationship, not to be hurt by some kinds of words like that (uneducated etc….
i agree.
this is the truth and there’s no reason to keep it under wraps since these singaporeans are obviously unafraid. do you mean we should keep our mouths shut just like so many other singaporeans. we cannot deny that this happened, sadly. what’s the point of being a world class sports hub if singaporeans supporters can’t even learn to accept defeats or setbacks graciously? in sports, there are always those who win and those who don’t so there’s no reason to act in such ways.
Multi racial and multi cultural society, to have this kind of act still existing is really saddening to hear.
To Poon: Oh so you mean that if a Singaporean were to murder someone and if you saw it, you wouldn’t say it out. People come here as guests and should not be treated this way. I guess the one that should shut up here is you.
poon,
by writing what you wrote and posting it is as shameful as those people les mentioned in the articles. ==”
“To be Singaporean doesn’t mean to cover up the illegal activities of a fellow Singaporean.
I think writing this story will show some Vietnamese (and they have taken this story and posted it on their forums already) that some of us Singaporeans do not condone the criminal behaviour of our fellow Singaporeans.”
For this I admire you les. Let this be the trait of Singaporean. You are friendly, polite, civil and you are anti-crime. This is because Singapore is a modern and highly-educated society, right? 🙂
poon, most Vietnamese will not read Singapore media. This is an article for Singaporeans to look at themselves and eradicate the criminal elements. They can’t bring down the country, nor can they put any shame on us. I say us because I’m more of a Singaporean than a Vietnamese now after all my education and working life here. Why does this country care about better lighting and skyline decoration for F1 race, but not the behavior of its own people?
MM Lee mentioned many a time about how he should have built a society of grace. Some people still lack that.
The vietnamese fans deserved to get that, because they were too much, and just imagine if we singaporeans are in their country and we won.they would have done worser things in anger.its the singaporeans right to get angry when vietnamese made a mockery on singaporeans.I was there.and its not fair blaming the singaporeans fans all alone.Vietnamese fans are somehow responsible for this too.Even the vietnam coach looked down on singapore.I really think singaporeans has the rights to do so.and the vietnamese fans must have did something first to provoke the singaporean fans.The vietnamese deserved it.
poon,
your attitude disgusts me. it’s people like you that put our country to shame. you are the one that needs to use your brain. Sweeping things under the carpet does not help things at all.
I hope your friends get justice, Jon.
Poon, silence is not golden, not in the case of criminal activities.
Put yourself in their shoes.
If you were the one beaten up, you would have demanded justice.
To be Singaporean doesn’t mean to cover up the illegal activities of a fellow Singaporean.
I think writing this story will show some Vietnamese (and they have taken this story and posted it on their forums already) that some of us Singaporeans do not condone the criminal behaviour of our fellow Singaporeans.
I got in touch with some old Vietnamese friends and they did file a police report. Oh well uneducated minority…
This is disgraceful, disgusting, uneducated, and unSingaporean.
I dont know what the police did to those mofos or if they just ignored them. Outnumbering a group of young benign Vietnamese students and burning their flag is nothing to be proud about.
come on les ,
trying to bring down singaporean is it ?
posting such article ,
pls lar use yr brains can or not ?
sometimes silence is golden !
i dun understand you seriously ,
even if we singaporeans did such things then whey must you post such article about singaporean ?
cant you keep quiet ?
This is completely disgusting.
I hope you caught them on camera,Les.
I also hope that whoever did catch it on camera will post it on the net so that these idiots can be identified and weasled out.