Sports Minutes: Forrest Li’s SEA pledges $50 million to Singapore football as the Lions clinch a homecoming win

**Zia-ul Raushan** (0:01)
Sports Minutes with Zia-ul Raushan, Money FM 89.3, it's time for Sports Minutes with me, Zia-ul Raushan. Coming to you from the Kallang, where the Lions concluded their historic Asian Cup qualification campaign on a high, 1-0 victors over Bangladesh, which meant they maintained the unbeaten record in the group stages. Not that Gavin Lee was best pleased with the performance though, but more on that later, because about an hour before kickoff, the Straits Times broke the news of an unprecedented cash injection by Sea and Forrest Li. To tell us more, I'm joined by who else but Deepan Rajganesan. Deepan, talk about putting your money where your mouth is.

**Deepanraj Ganesan** (0:36)
Yeah, fantastic news. Just for context, for people who don't quite sort of understand the magnitude of this news, I think it's massive, because we have never seen such a donation or investment, however you want to frame it, into football in Singapore, let alone any sports in Singapore. I think in years gone by, we've seen the Peter Lim Scholarship pouring money into the development of athletes in Singapore, but it's never been 50 million poured into one sport, and that's what has happened with this news of Sea Limited's cash injection into Singapore football. I would say it's very, very good news and quite timely in fact, because today is the last match of the Asian Cup Qualifier, Date Rubber, but we are celebrating the Asian Cup Qualification, but it's about what's next. We have already reached this stage of qualification, but it should not be a one-off. It should be the start of something that becomes a regular, and I think that's where the 50 million will help. I mean, we all know that in modern day, football is something that requires funding, requires investment. In years gone by, Singapore football, people say yes, has gotten a lot of funding from the government, most funding from the government compared to other sports, but if you look at it from a region's perspective, what Singapore spends in football is nothing compared to what other countries around us are spending. And I think this is something that was very much welcome. Forrest Li himself has called for more support in football and this is basically him putting the money where his mouth is.

**Zia-ul Raushan** (2:06)
Yeah, and that's a sentiment echoed by Haris Arun when we caught up with him post-match as well. Have a listen.

**Haris Arun** (2:12)
I'm sure we can use the money in the right ways, in the right area. I mean, of course, it's big to say, you know, we have X amount being good to the game, you know, but where does he go? How do we do it? There's some more support I think. So I'm sure we have a plan in place for that. Yeah, generally, I think if you look at the game around, we don't go too far, just around our region in ASEAN. There's a lot of investment already in the previous years, you know, so I think this is a good sign for us, you know, for start. Now we've got to put the money in the right places here.

**Zia-ul Raushan** (2:44)
Now, Deepan, you talked about Forrest Li walking the talk. Is this part of a wider push? He's sort of giving you an example of, yes, I'm willing to part with this much of my own money through Sea, and he's hoping stakeholders will follow suit.

**Deepanraj Ganesan** (2:58)
Yeah, I think that is exactly what it is. I think it's sort of showing you the example that, hey, you know, I'm willing to fork out this amount because I care about what happens for the development of Singapore football. Why not you make this step up as well? I think he's said it a few times now where it's not him alone and FAS alone that can uplift Singapore football requires other hands.
And I think you already see the effects. I think today also FAS announced through Forrest Li that an insurance company has come on board for a three-year partnership, if I'm not wrong, that starts in April. So that's very much good news. And it shows that newer sort of corporates or sponsors are coming into the picture. And again, I hope that's the start of something new, something that, you know, others will look at and say, hey, why don't I get involved as well? I think the culture needs to change in Singapore sports where people look at the NSAs, the FAS or any other sports organizations to be the be-all end-all in terms of the development of the sport in Singapore. But I think it goes beyond that. You look around, don't look around the world, but look around us in terms of the regions. You look at Malaysia and the corporate companies that pour money into sports there, or you look at Philippines or even Thailand. I think Thailand is a great example in terms of the corporate companies that are involved in football there and how much money they pour into it, not just from a broadcast perspective but from a company perspective. So these are all examples that are near us to follow and I think more needs to be done in Singapore football and cannot stop with Forrest Li alone.