Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Singapore's Disdain Of Football
You gotta feel for football fans in Singapore. Despite there being plenty of them, most supporting Manchester United, Liverpool or Chelsea, the country does nothing for them.
Take for example the cack handed way the demolition of the National Stadium was handled to make way for a new Sports Hub, god they love that word, hub. They'd be the hub for choc ices if they could.
Anyway Brazil brought a team over yonks ago to play in the National Stadium, to send off the old girl in style. Years later and it was still being used! Meanwhile work had not started on a replacement.
This year sees Chelsea across the causeway and rumours that Liverpool will also be heading there. But Singapore? Nope, not a chance.'Cos there's no stadium big enough to host any team that could boast an away following of more than 1,000.
Now there's news that Tampines Rovers may lose their stadium, possibly relocating to Yishun, to make way for a Tampines Town Hub. You can't make it up, can you?
Of course as of now, no-one knows if the stadium will need to be demolished or whether it will be incorporated into the 'Hub'.
But it's an indication of the importance the government gives football.
We never hear stories of new local stadiums being built. In an election year, with the government handing out cash left right and centre how people relax just ain't important. Plus of course football stadiums don't really encourage people to part with large bundles of cash, not like shopping malls.
The AFC will be visiting Singapore soon. Last year the FAS announced they would not be competing in the Champions league, saying it was more important to prioritise foreign clubs in their league. But that's crap. The league needs a minimum average crowd of 5,000, the SLeague is so far short of that it's laughable even with their inflated figures, and a minimum four stadiums must hold at least 5,000 fans...the SLeague has one.
# posted by Me @ 5:50 AM 
