If one is unfamiliar with Singapore’s Balestier Khalsa FC, it is easy to dismiss the club for not having die-hard fans and by that, we mean fans who would be singing and shouting throughout the game.
There is a middle-aged man popularly known as “Abang Tiger”, who is the most vocal of all Balestier fans. In my role as part of the club’s sports presenter, I interviewed the rather shy man who identified himself as just Salleh. Salleh mentioned he is quite happy going solo, away from any other potential politicking among fans.
He is called Abang Tiger because of his trademark roars.
Through the podcast that I run in collaboration with the club, Back Passt X Balestier Khalsa, I was introduced to some fans of the club during the pre-season in February.
These fans are predominantly Sikhs, as the club looks to maintain its association with the community due to the presence of Khalsa in its team name.
One of the fans we spoke to was Alvinjeet Singh. He was invited to watch Balestier play Hougang United by his good friend, Jasdeep Kang, last season and in that process, rediscovered his passion for Singaporean football.
Jasdeep has been a fan longer, tracing back to eight years ago when he used to play for Singapore Khalsa Association.
Since then, Jasdeep has roped in his friends to support the team. This led to the formation of a Balestier fan club.
Fast forward to May 2022, the fan club now had a name – Lightning Tigers – and enough members to form a squad of 20 players to participate in D2D Sports’ Fan Club Futsal League.
From their first match, the fan club has proven that they are not just there to participate, but to compete for the top prizes.
They are currently second in the league, three points behind SINGAGONES, the Olympique Lyon fan club in Singapore, with a game in hand.
As I have written in one of my previous articles, Balestier Khalsa has been really supportive of the Lightning Tigers, as the football club has sent members of staff and/or players to support their fans in their league matches.
At the stands, the Lightning Tigers are slowly but surely making their presence felt. This can be seen and heard by the drum beats of the traditional Indian drum dhol during matches to create an atmosphere that Alvinjeet yearned to create for Balestier’s matches.
Gursewak, the dhol master at the games, explained that they are coming up with original chants, as they feel most of the chants by their rival fan clubs have been copied from English teams.
As it is by playing the dhol, they already have a unique sound compared to other fans.
Alvinjeet, who is the heart and soul of Lightning Tigers, encourages others to join the fan club, as it is open to all. He has asked interested fans to get more people to come for matches through their social media accounts.
The Lightning Tigers is taking baby steps but are surely getting themselves known and heard in the Singapore football scene.
This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Twentytwo13. Main image from Lightening Tigers FC’s Facebook account.
