Watching the Malaysian Super League match (2nd half) of the title winning match of LionsXII vs Felda United, see how the fans are singing in unison; a fan culture that was non-existent just 5 years ago ; I reminisce how it all started during the absolute lows of Singapore football, when I first joined Kallang Roar forum (kallangroar.com), where the friends I made there gathered to make trips to support the Lions.
Eventually, the bulk of this group became the core of the Lions All The Way (LATW) hardcore fan group, whom introduced their European/EPL inspired chants to the National Team and Sleague.
LATW is instrumental in the birth of ExcluSinga / Singamania (in my opinion), which was formed to support the LionsXII club that is representing the FAS’ side in the Malaysian Super League. Without LATW’s precedence, I think Exclusinga / Singamania may have taken longer to find a Modus Operandi or model to look up to.
And with the concerted and committed effort of not just ExcluSinga, but all the various LionsXII fangroups that had spawned since Singapore’s returned to Malaysian football, it finally accumulated with the most incredible Suzuki Cup semis and finals atmosphere I had ever experienced since I started supporting local football (probably with the exception of the AFF championship semi final with Malaysia, where we won on penalties). The atmosphere is similar to what I had experienced during the Malaysia Cup era where my uncle brought me to the stadium on 2 separate occasion.
Finally, today, as I watched LionsXII for only the 2nd time in this season, the singing of “Ayuh Ayuh” by the LionsXII is just as powerful as any popular teams in our region (Arema Malang, Johor Darul Takzim, etc…).
The dream that we Kallangroar folks had years ago is now fulfilled: where we have Singaporeans pouring down to the stadiums to support our Lions with full voiced singing and chanting. (although this have not yet reached Sleague yet – The support for LionsXII (effectively our SEA Games squad), spilled over the our National Team)
However, the irony is that, many of those whom had that dream, hates LionsXII too much to see how they had actually been the pioneer to all these fervent support for our National Sides due to their little involvements in the days where no one else cared.