Blame SingTel's EPL gambit
YESTERDAY'S report ('World Cup fans may miss out on all matches') indicates that Singapore will be denied the live telecast of this year's football World Cup because SingTel and StarHub will not pay the price demanded by soccer's world governing body, Fifa.
The self-destructive contest between SingTel and StarHub for the telecast rights to the English Premier League (EPL) played into Fifa's hands.
As we can afford the exorbitant price for EPL rights, why not for World Cup 2010, Fifa must have reasoned - a hard-nosed stance which is not consonant with its fair-play motto.
SingTel and StarHub say they must balance the interests of their shareholders against the passion of football-crazy Singaporeans. If that is so, how can SingTel justify its pyrrhic win of EPL rights?
It appears to have learnt an expensive lesson. The Government so far looks askance at the issue; it appears aloof to the angst of many Singaporeans.
If Singapore had qualified to play in South Africa (an ambitious target mooted many years ago by then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong), would the Government not have used its influence with internal and external parties to ensure we got to watch the national side play? A case can be argued for the Media Development Authority to deploy a portion of its TV licence fee - which is meant to fund public service programmes, we are repeatedly told whenever the continuing need for the fee is challenged - to help in this impasse.
What about Singapore Pools, which rakes in handsome profits from football bets? Surely its takings will be badly hurt without the live telecast. People, including policymakers, with scant interest in football will not understand the furore. Why give in to extortion, they may ask. But to many ordinary Singaporeans, it is no trivial matter.
The travesty is that many poor countries will get to watch the matches live for a token fee: An admirable bit of social work by Fifa.
But Singapore, so affluent and regarded by some as punching above its weight on various matters, must pay the price in all senses. Will we? Should we?
Tan Chak Lim
