Last week, SportSG came under fire for putting up a poster which got the names of two Singaporean footballers wrong.
You had one job, Sport Singapore (SportSG), one job.
SportSG Posts Poster with Wrong Names of Singaporean Footballers
On Wednesday (10 May), an image of a SEA Games poster made its rounds on social media after a Facebook user, Ms Aishwariyah Shanmuganathan, pointed out that the poster had mixed up the names of two Young Lions.
The two Singaporean footballers donning red in the middle of the poster, Ajay Robson and Muhammad Ryaan Sanizal, had an identity swap on the poster—their names were printed over each other’s pictures.
At the bottom of the banner, it is observed that a couple of organisations are responsible for this—the People’s Association (PA), the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC), the Tote Board and, of course, SportSG.
Well, someone at one of these organisations is getting fired.
Contrary to what you may think now, this banner was not spotted in Singapore’s ghetto, Yishun. This newest egg on SportSG’s face hails from elsewhere in the North-East region of Singapore—Hougang.
Specifically, the poster was spotted at Hougang Avenue 8.
SportSG Apologised and Took Immediate Action to Right Its Wrongs
The sports agency has since apologised to the two Young Lions and their families for the hiccup.
They have also immediately rectified this hiccup upon receiving notice of it.
After all, earlier this year, they’ve already “lost face” from the massive shoe recycling programme scandal. If they don’t rectify the wrong names on the SEA Games banner as soon as possible, you might find members of the SportSG PR team googling resignation letter templates soon.
According to The Straits Times, the mistake in the Young Lions’ names was a clerical error.
See lah. Use ChatGPT somemore.
SEA Games Posters Customised For Each Constituency
You’ve probably seen the SEA Games banners around your neighbourhood unless you’re a basement child. If you haven’t seen them, here’s a tip from Goody Feed: please go out soon to touch grass lah.
Better yet, if you didn’t know that the 32nd SEA Games are currently ongoing, consider expanding your reading beyond just the Mdada saga. You can start with this article.
558 athletes across 30 different sports were sent by Singapore to the SEA Games this year.
To support Team Singapore, the SEA Games posters were put up islandwide featuring athletes representing Singapore at the sporting event.
Going from constituency to constituency, you’ll realise that each banner looks different. And no, it’s not because of another SportSG hiccup.
The banners are different because they were customised for each constituency—athletes staying in a particular constituency will be featured on the banners of their constituency but not others.
At least now the residents at Hougang know that they have two Young Lions, alongside nine other athletes from other sports, dwelling in their midst.
“We hope that this incident does not overshadow the hard work and efforts of our athletes at the SEA Games, and we thank Singaporeans for their continued support of Team Singapore,” a spokesperson from SportSG shared.
The SEA Games, which kickstarted on 5 May, will be drawing to a close this Wednesday (17 May).
If you haven’t heard, despite our 7-0 soccer loss on Thursday (11 May), Team Singapore has nevertheless been doing us proud in the SEA Games this year.
For one, Singapore sprinter Shanti Pereira clinched a double gold in the 100m and 200m sprints last week.
We also saw Soh Rui Yong clinch a fourth-place finish at the men’s 5,000m event and a silver medal in the men’s 10,000m event. This was his first SEA Games in six years.
Singapore’s water polo team also thrashed Malaysia 14-1 on Saturday (13 May).
Of course, many other Team Singapore athletes across different sports have also been doing splendidly. Currently, our medal tally ranks Singapore within the top 5 spots.
In the last few days leading to the end of the SEA Games, let us continue to root for our Team Singapore athletes!
