Forum: Cape Verde World Cup qualification proves that small can stand tall

Jubilation hit the streets in Cape Verde when the country – with a population of less than 600,000 – qualified for the Fifa World Cup, ahead of group favourites Cameroon (

Little Cape Verde bursts out in celebration after first World Cup qualification

, Oct 14). This feat was surpassed only by Iceland with a 335,000 population at the World Cup in Moscow in 2018.

While Singapore as a small nation also proudly punches well above its weight in many areas, football is not one of them. So how can two countries, whose combined population is less than one million, do so well in an arena that Singapore has longed to be in, but never even come close?

Is it money, mentality or focus? Or perhaps all three?

Money: We’ve not taken football seriously as an investment, with a floundering league and weakness from the ground up, notwithstanding a belatedly introduced Sports School.

Mentality: We’ve not seen the need for excellence in football in general. Tossing a million here and a million there for Olympic glory doesn’t cut it. Do we really have serious intent in grooming a nation with footballing excellence?

Focus: “Sports is temporary, livelihoods are permanent” is our mantra, but the truth is that sportsmen can earn more than most people. Our plans are sporadic, piecemeal, dispassionate and merely popular soundbites.

Are Singaporeans not interested in football? On the contrary, we are among the most ardent followers of the English Premier League and La Liga. We filled our old National Stadium with up to 70,000 in our Malaysia Cup glory days.

So what went wrong?

We never planted the seeds of footballing success or nurtured talents with a long-term vision. Smallness is a convenient excuse but not a real one, as Cape Verde proved.

Satish Kumar Khattar