Footballing Weekly: Two-way effort to drum up SPL support
Fans can take the effort to support clubs further away from home, but clubs must also do their part to reward supporters
SINGAPORE — The 2023 Singapore Premier League (SPL) season will begin with the traditional Community Shield match at Jalan Besar Stadium on Sunday (16 February).
As defending champions Albirex Niigata (Singapore) and Singapore Cup winners Hougang United prepare to kick off the new season, there may be some football fans who are curious to give the SPL a try.
What should they do? Which club should they choose to support?
The straightforward answer is to go to the club closest to home, but as Singapore is a small island nation, supporting an SPL club further away from home isn't too much of an inconvenience.
You can be an Albirex fan living in Pasir Ris in Eastern Singapore, and it is still less than an hour to travel west to Jurong East Stadium to watch the SPL champions' home games.
Nonetheless, one hopes that the SPL clubs are doing their utmost to attract new fans to support their players. And one good way to do so is to offer attractive club jerseys and merchandise.
As the panel on Yahoo! Singapore's "Footballing Weekly" podcast show concurs, putting jerseys on fans means they become walking advertisements for the clubs, and merchandises also help them connect with the clubs.
It takes a two-effort to engineer a steady support for SPL clubs, and hopefully the new season heralds a better connection between clubs and supporters for a more compelling league this year.
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