SINGAPORE - They came from across the Causeway to enjoy a football match.
But the 150-odd Johor Darul Takzim (JDT) supporters who travelled to
Singapore to watch their team's Malaysia Super League (MSL) match
against the LionsXII at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Tuesday, claim that
overly-stringent security officers turned their trip into a farce.
Most of them ended up watching a portion of the match on their mobile
phones outside the stadium, JDT fan Zaman Nuri Hassan, who runs the
"Luaskan Kuasa Mu Oh Johor Ku" Facebook fan page, told The New Paper
yesterday.
Five Malaysians - a woman and four men - were arrested before the
match for disorderly behaviour. They are out on bail and investigations
are ongoing.
Mr Zaman said many JDT supporters were agitated when security
officials at Jalan Besar told them to stay inside their buses even after
they arrived late at the stadium.
He said the fans, who were in five buses, had left Larkin Stadium at
3pm, but were held up for almost two hours at the Woodlands Checkpoint
as their buses were inspected.
After arriving at the stadium at 7.45pm - the kick-off time - they were made to wait even longer.
"We were already late, but they still wouldn't let us get off the bus," said Mr Zaman.
"The doors of the bus were opened, but they didn't let us go anywhere. We couldn't even leave the bus to pee. There was a mixture of security officers, some in all-black attire,
some in yellow vests and some people in plainclothes taking pictures of
us. Some of us saw it as provocation. For 30 minutes, we were forced to
sit in the bus and just wait."
In response to TNP's queries, a police spokesman said: "The buses
arrived at Jalan Besar Stadium late. The arrangement was for the buses
to take turns to drive to the 'away' fan gate for alighting (and) the
away fans would then be facilitated to enter the stadium to watch the
match.
"The fans waiting in the buses were advised not to leave the buses as
this would have caused further delay to the drop-off process. "There
was a delay that night for the fans to enter the stadium as the liaison
from the away fans were sorting out the ticket arrangements."
Mr Zaman claimed he was among the first busload of JDT fans to be allowed into the stadium.
By then, it was the 35th minute of the match, which JDT eventually won 3-2 through a controversial refereeing decision.
But that was not the end of the drama.
During the second-half, a large number of JDT fans began streaming out of their designated area at the stadium.
"At that point, we heard that three busloads of our supporters were
not allowed into the stadium despite having tickets," Mr Zaman said.
"So we decided to boycott the game as a form of protest and to show unity with our fellow JDT fans.
"All of us left the stadium, and we watched the game on our mobile phones on the Astro On The Go website."
The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) said the Malaysian fans
who were turned away "were not holders of tickets to the rightful and
appropriate fan seating sectors".
At this point, some supporters became unruly after being denied entry.
In one video that has been making the rounds on social media, some
fans can be seen aggressively shouting offensive words at Cisco officers
outside the stadium, with one screaming "kecut" (cowards in Malay) at
them. In the same video, another fan is heard shouting in Malay: "We
need to pee! We're hungry! Thirsty! Why are we here?" Security officers
can be seen boxing the supporters in with white rope, which incensed
them further. Mr Zaman said it made the fans feel "like animals".
"The rope was used by Cisco as part of their crowd-control plan," a police spokesman said.
"The police officers were helping to maintain order among the fans
who were walking to the stadium without any tickets while their liaison
was sorting out the tickets. The fans were advised to go back to the
buses to wait as they would not be able to enter the stadium without
tickets."
It is understood that some of the JDT fans had tickets, but they were for seats outside the designated area for away supporters.
A local football fan, who declined to be named, told TNP: "This type
of strict security is a one-off. I have many friends from Malaysia who I
sit with at LionsXII games, and there's always no problem."
Referring to the away supporters who became unruly, he said: "I think
it's just a case of the JDT fans getting upset at being unable to enter
after buying tickets meant for Singaporeans."