Imagine a playground where children are playing together.
Advertisements
Imagine then, a grass patch right next to the playground.
Imagine after, that a young five-year-old who adores Lions skipper Hariss Harun bring a small plastic ball and wants to have a kick-around on the grass patch with kids his age.
Then imagine the horror.
No playing of football on the grass patch, even though the ball is just a plastic one and which will cause almost zero impact with its flight.
This is the scenario being provided to TMSG as we exposed yet another area in Singapore which seems to have taken the “no football” rule to one level of extremism.
The recent slate of photos were submitted by a resident from Punggol, at an area called Edgedale Plains and the playground in question is near the waterway feature which runs through the town.
Granted that the grass patch is close to a block of flats, but as this resident who reached out to TMSG said, “we are not organising a 11-a-side football match with goalposts and referees”.
“It is too much that kids cannot have a kickaround with a plastic ball.
“The rules are clearly targeting football, and it is unfair to people who love the sport.”
He also shared that there was a grass patch, which was unused, which also prevented children from playing football.
Another netizen who responded to TMSG’s post asked if football wasn’t allowed, would rugby be allowed then?
Good point raised, given that the signboard only targets football.
The TMSG reader ended his submission by saying that “hopefully the signs can be taken down”.
JUST WHAT IS HAPPENING IN SINGAPORE
The latest set of photos to be posted on TMSG comes at the back of a few posts which have been posted.
In November 2023, TMSG posted a story about how the Sembawang Town Council barricaded a void deck to stop children from playing football.
That act was lampooned by netizens and was then reported on various mainstream outlets.
Since then, TMSG has also posted a “NO BALL GAMES” sign posted at a sepak takraw court in West Coast Town Council, and also a basketball court in Woodlands which stops people from playing after 10pm by locking the hoops up with a metal contraption.
Both posts went viral, with social media influencers like the Lion City Boy and JustJaarvis commenting the posts which were posted by TMSG.
The issue did not end there at all.
Not to be outdone, East Coast GRC Member of Parliament Tan Kiat How also had to explain why he temporarily ordered a street soccer court to be shut in Bedok North following complaints of noise.
A resident at Buangkok had also reached out to TMSG to share how the covered basketball court in their area had seen the hoops removed from the courts for more than three months.
The “no football” and “no ball games” phenomenon is now a full blown national epidemic.
Very uniquely Singapore, as the Government spends an insane amount of money trying to Unleash The Roar, apparently a national movement to raise the standards of football in Singapore.
MAIN PHOTOS: TMSG READER