Transcript of Remarks by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam at the SportCares Hearts Football League Finale 2023

I want to thank everyone who has been involved in SportCares and Saturday Night Lights (SNL).

We started SNL ten years ago. I was very happy to be launching it in Taman Jurong then. We started with 60 boys. Now, we have 400 boys and girls, and a few thousand people have come through Saturday Night Lights over the decade. ‘Come through’ means you built team spirit. Everyone learns how to win and also how to lose, learning how to win and lose together, and support each other.

So this is a very good programme, and I came to say thank you to everyone involved. Thank you first to the coaches. They’re coaching football, but they’re also mentoring and supporting our players. Some have been there from the start. Coach Isa Haleem especially. He started as a coach with the BOLA boys in Jurong and is now coaching Xerox United. Some others have also been coaching in the programme for many years – Coach Muhammad Ansar, Coach Hamqaamal Shah, and a few others. All our coaches have been dedicated, and they form the backbone of this whole programme.

I want to thank all the parents and family members for your support, which is also very important. I thank our sponsors, Singapore Pools and Changi Foundation. They’re not just sponsoring year by year. They have provided ten years of funding so that SportCares can plan this well, knowing it will continue. The sponsors have hence played a very useful role.

And I want to thank the players. All of you, as well as those who came before you – for your discipline, team spirit, supporting each other, and winning and losing together. Ultimately, in life, we find ourselves winning and losing. No one can win all the time. And we do not lose all the time, as long as we’re in a team. So, this is something that all of you who have contributed to this for yourself, but also the whole team and our whole community.

I thank SportSG and SportCares for starting and growing SNL, and making it something special in Singapore. Let’s keep growing it.