Watching Football from Asia
My journey as a football supporter started in 2006. In my first ten years, i had known of the game and played time to time but had no vested interest in it. Then came June of 2006, the world cup held in Germany caught my attention. Ten-year-old me had the world cup fever. I watched avidly each day as I became more and more enamored with the team play and the individual talent within.
Now that I had been hooked, I had to pick a team. Now, I cannot exactly recall the reason why but that team was Liverpool FC. At the time upon choosing LFC, I did not know about it’s rich history and the values the club holds itself to, perhaps it was fate that I had chosen a team that’s values and motto sit so closely with mine. In my ten or so years now supporting the club, I have been through the ups and downs of being a football supporter. I’ve never witnessed Liverpool win a major trophy yet but I’ve seen some great football and have watched weekly, albeit on television, some amazing players in Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres, Luis Suarez and now Mohamed Salah.
To some, it might be difficult to imagine how someone from Singapore, thousands of miles away from England can have such passion and interest in a football club. Due to the general popularity of the game of football, in the past couple of decades there has been an increased amount of money being found from the game, through TV viewer ships and advertising. The game has simply become one with a huge outreach. Football is dubbed by many as “The Beautiful Game”. A game in which it does not matter what language or what country you are from to play. A game in which everyone in the world speaks the same language.
I have been lucky enough to go for a few live games since I have come to the UK to pursue my studies. For me, there’s just nothing like sitting in a packed stadium with huge amounts of people all rooting for the same cause, singing songs and celebrating collectively when a goal is scored. This is very much part of British culture. Back home in Singapore, the football games are a far cry from this. An extremely stale affair with not many people showing up for the matches at all, which to me Is surprising and rather frustrating as there are so many with the same sort of passion that I do for football but we would rather watch premier league football on television than support our local teams.
I have recently seen comments online by British folk criticising foreign fans for not supporting their own country’s team and instead a foreign one. My rebuttal would be without us foreign fans, the game would not be as popular as it is now. It would not be thriving as much as it is. I do think that back home in Singapore that we should start showing more support for our local teams and maybe in time it can reach the standards that the British or the Europeans set.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiZ2oivaBZk
Now that I had been hooked, I had to pick a team. Now, I cannot exactly recall the reason why but that team was Liverpool FC. At the time upon choosing LFC, I did not know about it’s rich history and the values the club holds itself to, perhaps it was fate that I had chosen a team that’s values and motto sit so closely with mine. In my ten or so years now supporting the club, I have been through the ups and downs of being a football supporter. I’ve never witnessed Liverpool win a major trophy yet but I’ve seen some great football and have watched weekly, albeit on television, some amazing players in Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres, Luis Suarez and now Mohamed Salah.
To some, it might be difficult to imagine how someone from Singapore, thousands of miles away from England can have such passion and interest in a football club. Due to the general popularity of the game of football, in the past couple of decades there has been an increased amount of money being found from the game, through TV viewer ships and advertising. The game has simply become one with a huge outreach. Football is dubbed by many as “The Beautiful Game”. A game in which it does not matter what language or what country you are from to play. A game in which everyone in the world speaks the same language.
I have been lucky enough to go for a few live games since I have come to the UK to pursue my studies. For me, there’s just nothing like sitting in a packed stadium with huge amounts of people all rooting for the same cause, singing songs and celebrating collectively when a goal is scored. This is very much part of British culture. Back home in Singapore, the football games are a far cry from this. An extremely stale affair with not many people showing up for the matches at all, which to me Is surprising and rather frustrating as there are so many with the same sort of passion that I do for football but we would rather watch premier league football on television than support our local teams.
I have recently seen comments online by British folk criticising foreign fans for not supporting their own country’s team and instead a foreign one. My rebuttal would be without us foreign fans, the game would not be as popular as it is now. It would not be thriving as much as it is. I do think that back home in Singapore that we should start showing more support for our local teams and maybe in time it can reach the standards that the British or the Europeans set.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiZ2oivaBZk