Just as he came out of a work meeting last Friday, Tampines Rovers fan Pang Jia Tai received the perfect news to start the weekend - the Singapore Premier League (SPL) will finally be back after more than half a year.
The long-awaited news that the SPL, which has been suspended since March 24 owing to the coronavirus pandemic, would return tomorrow was announced by Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong.
Pang, an engineer, said: "My weekends have been too boring, so when the news broke, I was jumping for joy."
For months, the Stags fan of 18 years was refreshing his social media pages in hopes that there would be news of the SPL's resumption.
Without local football, the 28-year-old, who also supports English giants Arsenal, has been tuning into the English Premier League and watching Tampines' old games on YouTube.
But fans may have to wait a little longer before they return to the stands as games will be played behind closed doors when the SPL kicks off.
Albirex Niigata fan James Perreira Gavin, a facilities maintenance technician, expected this but was still excited by the return of the league and will be following the live-streamed matches online.
The 42-year-old said: "I'm looking forward to the SPL restart, but it won't be the same because it will be behind closed doors."
However, others like Pang are eager to support their teams in the flesh and are planning to find a vantage point outside the stadiums' premises to cheer their teams on while observing safe distancing measures.
"We miss everything (about the match-day experience), from going to the stadium to watch the games to saying 'hi' to the players," said Pang, who is a part of the club's unofficial fan group, Yellow Knights.
Geylang International fan Nas Marjuki is planning to catch the broadcast with other fans, noting that he would abide by the Covid-19 precautionary measures.
For the past few months, the construction safety manager and his fellow Geylang fans from the club's unofficial fan group Ultras Eagles have reminisced about past games by sharing previous games' highlights in their WhatsApp chat group.
"It was really awesome news and we get to see our favourite teams in action again," said the 35-year-old, who has been supporting Geylang for five years.
"It's never happened before - to have a season halted - so it was all up in the air and we just wanted closure."
With Tampines at the top of the table with nine points from four matches - three more than Geylang who have a game in hand - Pang hopes that the Stags, who finished second behind Brunei DPMM last season, can get a shot at the title this time.
He added: "But the most important thing is that everyone is safe."
