(LtoR) Fooball legends John Barnes of Liverpool FC, Giovane Elber of FC Bayern Munich, Marco Cassetti of AS Roma, Emile Heskey of Leicester City FC and Gary Mabutt of Tottenham Hotspur FC pose with their jerseys throughout the Singapore Festival of Football press launch in Singapore.
| Photo Credit: AFP
Singapore may not be the primary place you’ll consider once you speak about soccer. Its males’s staff is 158th within the FIFA rankings; its girls’s staff is 131st. It has by no means certified for the World Cup. And it doesn’t have a globally recognised famous person. Yet the next for soccer has been passionate there for over a century.
Xener Kaur Gill, a 26-year-old Singaporean is thrilled in regards to the inaugural Singapore Festival of Football (organised by TEG Sport) that includes a number of the greatest European golf equipment — AS Roma, Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur, Leicester City, and her favorite membership, Liverpool. The competition might be on from July 26 to August 2.
“As a football fan, I am really excited to see these big clubs coming here. To see our favourite players live in action is truly an incredible experience — from the sheer level of skill we get to witness to the atmosphere, it’s a feeling that’s completely out of the world,” says Xener. “The love for football and — more specifically — Liverpool runs deep in my family. So I’m looking forward to soaking up the atmosphere with my family and enjoying our love for sport together.”
GB Srithar, Singapore Tourism Board’s Regional Director for India, Middle East, South Asia & Africa, expects loads of Indians, together with the expatriate neighborhood, to show up for the matches in Singapore. “A growing trend among Indian audiences is to travel for unique experiences and create memories, including attending global sporting events. People are keen to watch a live match, cheer for their favourite players, and enjoy an immersive experience that stays with them indefinitely,” he says.
Singapore Football Festival schedule
July 26: Tottenham Hotspur v AS Roma
July 30: Liverpool v Leicester
August 2: Liverpool v Bayern Munich
(All matches might be performed on the National Stadium, Singapore Sports Hub)
The Singapore Football Association (now referred to as the Football Association of Singapore), established in 1892, is Asia’s oldest soccer affiliation. Because of this historical past and mad following, a number of the sport’s giants have set foot within the tiny island nation. For occasion, when Pele visited the place in 1974, awestruck followers mobbed the legend wherever he went.
Usually, followers eager to witness the very best footballers in motion must fly to Europe as a result of that’s the place virtually all of them ply their commerce. And a giant chunk of those followers are from Asia. So, followers like Xener are thrilled when their favorite stars come to them.
“Asia is our single largest region in terms of fan base,” Billy Hogan, Liverpool’s chief govt, advised the BBC. “Someone once said to me, you could stand at any airport, jump on any plane and have a reason to go there and find Liverpool fans. But a third of our global support is here and we feel there’s tremendous opportunity in Asia.”
Timothy Ho, Managing Director of TEG Asia, credit the success of final 12 months’s pre-season match between Liverpool and Crystal Palace in Singapore because the catalyst of this 12 months’s match. “We also have the ambition to repeat it next year as well, subject to the availability of the clubs,” he added.
Besides the footballing motion, spectators may look ahead to a collection of entertaining choices on the Football Fan Interactive Festival Village all through the week. The village might be open to the general public on open coaching and match days in addition to on August 1, a day earlier than the ultimate match between Liverpool and Bayern Munich.
Tickets for the Singapore Festival of Football may be bought at https://premier.ticketek.com.sg/shows/show.aspx?sh=SFFUM
Source web site: www.thehindu.com
