The Big Winners of the Tiger Cup

Singapore beat Indonesia 5-2 on aggregate! Woohoo!

But who are the biggest winners of the Singapore team's victory? The team? Their manager? The fans who turned up to watch the finals, including those who had absolutely no idea what the Tiger Cup was until Singapore hosted Myanmar in the semis?

No.

The Big Winners of the Tiger Cup was the Singapore Government.

National sports definitely bring in nationalistic and patriotic pride, which is of course a positive asset in any country. Success in winning the Tiger cup definitely brought Singaporeans something to cheer about. Of course, the government benefits because this means even more loyal and patriotic Singaporeans. Such victories of course bring positive vibes to society and happy people means more productive people (in more ways than one).

Furthermore, the government has reason to brag about one policy which is not too popular with the indigenous population. That is, the 'foreign talent' policy. The success of the team was in no small part due to the skills contributed by Dave Bennett, Agu Casmir and Itimi Dickson. Thus, the government can gleefully point to the Tiger Cup triumph as evidence that the foreign talent policy is a successful and good policy (conveniently forgetting Edgar Goncalves who absconded back to his origins after his playing days were over of course).

PAP 1 Detractors 0

UPDATED: [excerpt]'Besides youth development, the FAS Technical Director also attributes the success to the foreign talent scheme'

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/050117/5/singapore127796.html

Evidence of trumpeting their policy - I recall other articles covering this aspect more directly but I can't remember their source!