A Vietnamese tourist was recently the subject of a massive Singaporean-initiated crowdfunding campaign to help him recover money that he was cheated of at a shop in Sim Lim Square, the latest of many scams and humiliating customer service involving shops at the popular (why?!) IT and electronics mall.
While the online witchhunt for the shop owner might have a little gone overboard (it's admittedly entertaining though), it is still heartening to see Singaporeans banding together to combat injustice, especially for a foreigner, in today's landscape where we are usually labelled as xenophobic by our own leaders.
In the midst of the Sim Lim Square uproar, the announcement of the changes being implemented for the 2015 S.League season swept the attention of the local football community. However, despite the news that at least 80+ football players and coaching staff would be jobless overnight making it to the papers, outside the football community, nobody cared.
It is great to see Singaporeans coming forward and coming together to make a difference when it matters, but we are still light years away from something like that happening for the football fraternity, even when we really need it most right now. The average Singaporean would more likely than not, show apathy instead of empathy when you mention the phrase 'Singapore football'. This just shows how little the people in Singapore care for the S.League, or Singapore football for that matter.
Having said all that, I do not blame these people for the way they view Singapore football. The effort made by the FAS to promote the S.League is mediocre at best, and they have shown time and time again that they do not know their own product, much less how to market it effectively. Thanks to the FAS, the S.League is an inconsistent, gimmicky and lazy product. Potato chips, anyone?
Written by our contributor Basil Yeo
