View from a Singaporean (ex-)Liverpool Fan

I think if we could get the following passage translated into Thai, Malay, Bahasa Indonesia, Vietnamese, Chinese, Arabic and Japanese, and read by EPL fans all over Asia, then our work would be done! The following are selected extracts from the Hougang United fans' blog. The full article-cum-speech in all its glory is HERE.

I've always been a Liverpool fan since I was a teenager but these recent years I have started questioning my soccer faith for a football club almost half way round the world.

I have no idea what England is like or what Liverpool as a city is. No clue about the lives of the English fans other than the 11 players who grace my TV screen every weekend. Although I was proud of a club with long history, I have no connection or relation to that place. I have no club identity, no club to call my own.

We have no football club to call our own.

We were just chasing someone else's glory.

Frankie from the KallangRoar forum sums up the same sentiments saying:

"To me, the so-called fans who just watch European football are not real football fans, but people who eat in front their sofa, watching TV. Just that the content is football. Watching football in the stands is just different, because you shout from where you are in the stadium and the referee, linesmen, players, coaches all can hear you."

This blog is about passion and love for Hougang United Football Club, about connecting with the players of Hougang United. It's also about the people who run the S-league week-in week-out. And most importantly, about creating a community amongst Hougang United fans and supporters.

If fans want to see improvement in the S-League, they have to be the change themselves and select an S-League team to support. They can buy match tickets, club merchandise and help spread the word about their favourite football club.

And hopefully with this initiative, we may one day see Singapore move away from EPL colonialism and stand proudly for our own S-league.

Local support has been long overdue, thanks to our misplaced love and loyalty for other clubs elsewhere. It's time to shed those years and years of shyness and embarassment. Peel those layers off and reveal the true Singaporean in you. It's time to be a real football fan... NOW!