Tuesday, November 16, 2010
You're Havin' A Laugh
So there we were at the Jalan Besar Stadium. Etoile players and their fans were celebrating securing 3rd place in the Singapore Cup and it looked like the French party that had begun on Wednesday after winning the SLeague would be another late night.
But nope, not this time. As the players celebrated on the field on comes the loud speaker with the announcement that as they wanted to turn the lights off and close the stadium would we make our way to the exits. Or piss off home!
Unbelievable. Football is about passion, it's about winning things. But obviously the people who run Singapore football don't see it like that. To them it seems the game itself is almost an inconvenience that interferes with their paper shuffling.
The same thing apparently happened at Queenstown when Etoile won the SLeague last week. After a roller coaster night the players were left twiddling their thumbs waiting for the trophy to arrive; it was on its way to Tampines until Etoile's late come back. The players got the trophy eventually, jumped around a bit and were then told they had five minutes to get the hell off the field!
It's a feeling easily described. It's like going to bed with that fit bird you saw at City Hall during the lunch break but waking up with Mabel from the coffee shop. Anti climax is putting it nicely.
We have match officials telling players and coaches on the bench to sit down and not celebrate or cheer on their team mates. We have players celebrating a famous victory after the game being told to go home. And we have fans staying away in droves.
# posted by Me @ 5:34 AM 
