BoLASEPaKO.COM - A Blog on Singapore Football

It used to cost $5 for more than a decade Years ago, before an S.League game between SAFFC and Etoile FC at Jalan Besar Stadium, I met someone I know just outside the ground, along King George Avenue, and had this brief conversation (as below). Acquaintance: "Do you have a free ticket?" as he was aware of my involvement in the scene. Me: "Nope, I don't have it" Acquaintance: "Cannot be, last time my who worked as a photographer, always have free tickets to matches" Me: "Time changes as different people are calling the shots now." A scene like this is not uncommon, but it is already becoming an annoying problem which I attributed to the liberal policy of giving complimentary entry that led to this kind of problem. A League Cup match played at Jalan Besar Stadium Perhaps, in the first place, such goodwill was to gather more awareness by offering free admission to fans to certain games. But the dangerous part of this giveaway has developed into ...

Back in March 1996, after a few pre-season friendly matches saw huge crowds turned up in thousands at stadiums like Bedok, Woodlands and Tampines to catch S.League teams like Geylang United and Woodlands Wellington in action, safety and security concerns were raised and highlighted in the newspapers. According to The New Paper (TNP), approximately 7,500 fans packed the Bedok Stadium to witness a star-studded Geylang United skippered by Fandi Ahmad taking on Johor SEDC on the 12th of March. When was the last time we had sights like this? (credit: NLB archive) Headlined "Safety, security action" on one of the back pages of its 14th of March edition, the tabloid included a picture of a scene that had never since reoccurred at games in recent years - a sardine-packed crowd congested the main stand of the Bedok Stadium to see the aforementioned match. SAFETY CONCERN  Geylang star defender Kadir Yahaya was quoted in the same article saying: "Although the turnout was ...

I thought one of the good initiatives of the rebranded Singapore Premier League (SGPL) is to allow fans to buy their match tickets online, which is a laudable move as it is a practice in tandem with many other sporting events held in Singapore. However, I wish to highlight matters pertaining to those tickets, which are now printed on better quality material, bought on match days at the game venues. After a few rounds of matches, it is regrettable tickets purchased over the counter not longer detailed those match information except these words, as shown in the picture below. The "22/7/18" match saw Albirex Niigata (S) clinched the SGPL title No one seems to be able to give an answer when I asked causally why the changes were made. As one may never know these ticket stubs, which were usually discarded by many after games, may be an important testament to something significant that happened during that particular match. I, myself, still have those match ticket stu...

I must apologize for the recent lack of updating because there are some tidy chores in my house for the upcoming repair works that are gonna take place in days to come. As such, I might see myself being tied up for some packing and clearing up some stuff along the process. The last time around I unearthed the two precious TNP centerspread of the Malaysia Cup era and now here are some relics I discovered during my clearing out... OLD MATCH TICKETS I think match tickets are just like a stamp that reflects well on something that happened in the past. On and off, I would always get an email from a Belgian ticket collector asking for the used tickets for those Lions' matches. Unfortunately, the tickets used below are not to be given away at any price for their significance. The ticket to the S.League Opening Ceremony at the National Stadium in 1996 (Pictured above) This ticket was the admission slip to the S.League Opening ceremony on 14 April 1996 at the National Stadium where the...