The S.League : the snakes and ladders football league of Asia

Abstract

Football is one of the most popular sports in the world with over 265 million registered players (Soligard, 2008). A select number of domestic leagues dominate the global level in terms of popularity and financial success (Oberstone, 2009). In Singapore, football is an extremely popular game that regularly features on the sport pages of the local newspapers. However, as in many countries across the globe, Singapore’s domestic football league, which is known as the S.League, must also compete with the higher profile European leagues for fans, newspaper column space, and TV air time (Little, 2013).<br><br>Despite being formed as recently as 1996, the S.League was shortlisted as one of the best leagues in the Asian region (Osman, 2015). Nevertheless, since the league’s inaugural season, the Football Association of Singapore’s (FAS) quest to make the league a success has experienced many ups and downs. The S.League has struggled with corruption cases (Nair, 2000; Singh, 1997), league restructuring (Dorai, 1996), financial troubles (Tan, 2016a), and poor crowd attendances (Osman, 2016). Like the ancient Indian board game of snakes and ladders, the S.League has its roots in morality lessons, where progression through the game is complicated by ‘virtues’ (ladders) and ‘vices’ (snakes) (Topsfield, 1985). Using Ingham and Hardy’s (1993) criteria as a theoretical framework, this project investigates the history and evolution of the S.League since its establishment in 1996. It draws on historical material and qualitative interviews of current S.League coaches and players, in order to trace the nature of the reassuring ladders and the discouraging snakes impacting the League.