It comes back every few years; the dream to put the Singapore in the World Cup by a certain time. Like every recurring nightmare, it always ends on a terrifying note, with a promise of a return in the future.
Well, it’s back and now the goal is 2034.
Jose Raymond’s written up a pretty educational Facebook post regarding this, summarizing Singapore’s footballing history from the past few decades very succinctly and then discussing on whether the dream is feasible.
It’s not meant to be the meat of the post, but there are a ton of interesting nuggets that I personally didn’t know. For one, I had no idea Singapore’s never won a Gold Medal at the SEA Games for football!
The post also drives home the point that the Singaporean National Team’s legacy since the 80s/90s has been abysmal. We went from 75th in the world in 1993 to 81st in 98 to 92nd in 2005 and we’re now 158th.
As somebody who grew up in the 90s, I was surrounded by football. Names like Fandi Ahmad, David Lee, Abbas Saad, Lim Tong Hai and V Sundramoorthy were a regular topic of discussion…especially after every win or loss.
Now? I can’t even name ONE Singapore National Team player. I reckon that’s the case for most Singaporeans as well. It’s really a sorry state of affairs that those in charge seem to be completely oblivious too.
Raymond’s post makes a very good point that the people pushing Singapore for World Cup entry don’t seem to be doing their due diligence. Specifically, he asks whether enough research and studies have been done to gauge whether the public would even care enough to merit such a tremendous effort. Would our resources be better spent on other sports with more interest and potential?
If you’ve any interest in Singapore football at all, then you owe it to yourself to take a look at Raymond’s post and maybe even participate in the discussion in the comments box.