Politics and sports - Draw the line please

With the ball at his feet, Singapore striker supersub Khairul Amri drove towards the Thailand goal in the 81st minute. The Thai defenders hesitated, perhaps because their tired legs refused to shake off the lead that seemed to grow on their muscles; perhaps because they thought Amri could do no harm, or that he would not have the guts nor gumption nor the skill to do anything so audacious as to shoot.

But with a quick shuffle of his feet, a shoulder drop and a slight pull-back of his right leg, he slammed the ball into the net with the outside of his foot from 18 yards out, past 3 defenders and a stunned goalkeeper. The scoreboard read: 1-1. Aggregate 2-3 to Singapore.

He ran, unbelieving, howling with joy to his teammates in the silence that had suddenly descended upon the 30,000 strong crowd at Thailand's Rajamangala Stadium.

It was the highlight of the match which was dominated by the Thais for most part of the match. Their skill and speed was clearly streets ahead of the Singapore team but the Singaporean team wearing blue, instead of their normal red, was the better organised side.

Indeed, with this win, Singapore not only retained the Asean championship, previously known as the Tiger cup, but can also finally claim to be the genuine challenger to Thailand, long regarded as the kings of Asean football.

The win was glorious and unexpected given the controversy that had marred the first leg of the final. Singapore won that first leg 2-1 after the Malaysian referee Malaysian referee C Ravichandran awarded Singapore a dubious penalty in the last ten minutes of the game, prompting a walkout by the Thai team. They eventually returned after 15 minutes but it had set up an intriguing finale and set off a string of conspiracy theories put forth by the Thai media.

The controversy was further fanned by the straining of diplomatic ties between Singapore and Thailand after former premier Thaksin Shinawatra met with Singapore deputy Prime Minister S. Jayakumar on a social visit.

That prompted Thailand to cancel a planned visit by Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo to Bangkok. A few days after that, the Thai army said that it suspected Singapore of tapping the phones of its generals through Shin Corp, previously owned by Thaksin and which was bought over by the Singapore government investment company Temasek Holdings last year. That sale started a chain of events that ended Thaksin's political career.

Some quarters are saying that for better neighbourly relations, it would have nicer if Singapore had lost. After all, Thailand is a bigger country than Singapore. And 'face' means a lot in the Asian culture.

But for most Thais, despite the media frenzy spouting all sorts of theories, they draw the line between sports and politics. Emotions certainly run high in football games. Read some of the chants that the English fans use when their team meets their rival team.

Yet, emotions almost always stay within the stadium when the game is played. Once the game is over, players shake hands, fans walk out, with the memories of the spectacle trickling away with each step towards home.

I enjoyed myself. I cursed the Thais when they scored, I screamed at the referee when he made a bad call.

But I did so in the spirit of the game, not because their leaders are taking potshots at my country.

I drew the line. I hope everyone else will too