By Koh Yizhe/Red Sports
It was great to see 200 people of all ages go down to Hong Lim Park on a Saturday afternoon. They were gathered to protest against StarHub and SingTel for charging what they felt were exorbitant prices for the live broadcast of the 2010 World Cup.
The demonstration illustrates the immense passion that these 200 football fans have for the beautiful game and the World Cup.
But why only passion for something that is going to happen 8659 km away? What about local sports — something that happens on a daily basis in stadiums less than five km from our door steps? Will we ever see a demonstration of 200 people for local sports?
The contrast can’t be greater.
This local passion is not limited to international football. Some will remember when basketball superstar, Kobe Bryant, came down to Singapore two years ago as part of his Asian tour to promote his new shoe. Around 8,000 fans went down to the Singapore Indoor Stadium to see the Black Mamba “in action” where they witness him teaching a couple of moves to some of Singapore’s young basketball talents.
He made a spectacular entrance to the delight of 8,000 screaming fans, strutted around and talked for 40 minutes, made seven layups, missed two jump shots, thanked the fans, and left.
Oh, by the way, did anybody remember the basketball game before Kobe’s brief appearance? I guess not.
Another event that would be relatively fresh in some supporters’ minds will be the time when Liverpool came to our little island. The national stadium “became” Anfield for an afternoon. It was definitely great to see the National Stadium painted red once again, but aiyah, the wrong kind of red.
And yes, OUR national football team lost 5-0. Ouch, right?
There are other examples of how Singaporeans love their international sports, so it begs the question — what about the passion for local sports?
To be fair, individuals have their own reason for their passion for international sporting events, but for local sports, there is one simple reason that should be common to all of us.
We’re Singaporeans.
As a Singaporean, it be nice to see just a small percentage of the passion for international sports being shown for local sports as well. While I don’t expect stadiums to be filled at S.League matches or people to start reciting the Singapore Slingers’ roster by heart any time soon, don’t you think it would be nice to see a little support for local sports as well?
The table tennis women’s team won the World Championship at Moscow last week and I know what you’re thinking. I’ve heard it a million times.
“But they’re not REALLY Singaporean!”
Hey, even a demonstration about the foreign talent scheme would be great to see! It would show that someone actually cares about who is wearing that flag on their chest. It would show that people actually care for this country.
200 people gathered for the demonstration against the telcos, but will 200 people come together for local sports?
You guys are missing the point, but with that, making a more important point!
The 200 demonstrated about money, not the world cup.
Why would Singaporeans, or any other body, demonstrate about sports for sports sake. We should be demonstrating about sports funding and infrastructure and lack there of!
I am usually an idealist, so let me see what the “other side” might say.
Don’t you think it’s possible that the only reason 200 otherwise reserved, apolitical and some might say “Bo chup” Singaporeans came down to protest is because they felt pain where they’ve been trained to feel the most, in the wallet, and not because of any real passion for sports?
On the flip side, we need more than just 200 people demonstrating their passion for local sports. We need at least 4.9 million, regardless of what their definition of “local” ultimately is, to get behind Singapore sports.
I’m not calling for some sort of massive rebellion, no, what I hope for is a frank and passionate discussion about sports in Singapore and for the people actually involved in sports to feel it, to feed off this energy and perform better, whether as a coach, as a player, as a fan or as an administrator.
Support local sports because you want something to cheer for, because you identify with it and not because it’s some cheaper, more realistic alternative to watching Singapore trounce Brazil 8-1 in Pro Evolution Soccer.
The previous poster, Kelvin, recognizes the value of the struggle in sport and the self-improvement that comes about as a result.
I feel sports is not always about the results on the pitch, and we should try to build our own sporting legacy slowly rather than try to find the best of the rest and convince them to join us.
So what if we cannot compete with the likes of the US or China because of their larger talent pool? Start slow, instill the right attitude and eventually we will be able to compete. And it doesn’t matter that we lose, what matters is that we’re there and trying.
If everyone in the SEA Games was there for the results, nations like Laos and Philippines shouldn’t even bother sending teams for football, Singapore should just inherit the waterpolo gold medal every two years, and we wouldn’t need to spend time and money on training track athletes because we don’t win anyway.
But what gives me hope is that these things continue to happen, that there are still people who believe in sports and that some of them are Singaporean.
We don’t need the media attention from a demonstration at Hong Lim Park. If you’re willing to spend that time and money and have the energy to be there, may I suggest you channel it into actually supporting Singapore sports?
As a famous person once said, “it’s all about The Game, and who’s gonna play it.” 😉
Hear, hear. Well said. 🙂
In my humble opinion, it starts as early as when the average singaporean was in school and played sports as a kid. Our “passion” for sport comes from admiring the stars and wanting to emulate their playing abilities…and maybe a little too much PC/Console Gaming “sports” so that making those wonderful high level plays on the screen is more attractive than making lower level plays on the actual playing fields.
Possibly also depending on the sports programs that they were a part of (as it is probably not enough of us played organised sports when young)….there is too much emphasis on winning…and maybe on shortcuts to winning (like buying ready made talent)…that not enough emphasis was given to the true spirit of sports. That the glory is in the struggle..not the victory. When enough of us understand that sports is really about challenging ourselves to do better than what we are supposed to be able to achieve…than we will start to see appreciation for the “struggle”, and then we can follow local sports…even though the playing level is not as high as what we see on TV.