In 1878, a group of soccer-obsessed railway workers in the UK county of Lancashire came together to form a new club, called Newton Heath LYR.
Newton Heath played on a weekly basis, drawing in crowds to their ground on Bank Street and becoming a hub for the local community and a source of excitement for the region as a whole.
The team’s popularity meant that they needed a new ground by 1910 and so the club moved to a bigger one just up the road.
By that time, Newton Heath had been renamed Manchester United and the ground they moved to was Old Trafford. Just like that, a sporting giant was born.
Manchester Utd’s humble origins epitomise both the joy of grassroots football initiatives and their potential to mushroom, stimulating not only local economic growth and social cohesion, but a truly global commercial reach.
Across the globe, many miles from the packed-out pubs of Manchester, football fans in Southeast Asia burn with a similarly intense passion.
Football is massive, particularly in Indonesia, where Persib Bandung and Persija Jakarta command a large and loyal following, both at their grounds on match days and online.
Yet as well as bringing joy to fans and glory for its participants, football is an important sector in Southeast Asia’s economy and one that can help maintain the region’s impressive growth, if managed correctly.
The sector’s stellar potential, I believe, can be made a reality through targeted funding and expert project management, ensuring that the right initiatives receive the investment and guidance that they need.
There is abundant evidence that Southeast Asia is well placed to achieve just that.
For a start, national governments have bought into sports in general, with both Singapore and Malaysia splashing the cash to secure Formula One races, for example.
If government money can be readily unlocked for such eye-catching international events, then football fans can surely expect to receive their fair share in the near future.
Alongside state funding, private investment in the Southeast Asian economy has been exceptional in the past ten years and football has benefited too.
Investment groups, often based in the region, have played an important role in this development, building a bridge between foreign capital and local projects in need of both funding and expert guidance.
Singapore-based Riau Capital Live Pte Ltd, for example, has been working closely with sports and entertainment companies in the region over the past two years, identifying a number of footballing enterprises that have tremendous growth potential and matching them with investors in Europe and Asia.
In turn, these foreign investors see Southeast Asia’s population of more than 600 million as an increasingly promising market.
Social cohesion, alongside foreign direct investment, is another important by-product of the beautiful game. Grassroots sporting initiatives are a proven way of keeping young people out of trouble and can also help communities to bridge both ethnic and religious divides.
Investing in Southeast Asian football, therefore, is not just a good financial opportunity but one that can help investors embed corporate social responsibility into their portfolios.
For local economies, the jobs created and revenues derived from sport only serves to complement its societal value.
Indeed, and this may seem sacrilegious, but Old Trafford isn’t just a ‘Theatre of Dreams’ for the 75,000 in attendance each week and the billions watching worldwide. It is the epicenter of a global business which gives thousands of Brits a livelihood and draws billions in investment from around the world.
There is no reason that a football club like Persib Bandung can’t become a megabrand in its own right, or a city like Jakarta can’t make a name for itself as a premier footballing destination.
Step by step, with the right investments guided by the right people in the right projects, Southeast Asia can create its own success stories, securing jobs and development for local people in the process.
About the author: Datu Matthew Pajares Yngson, a commercial diplomat and cultural ambassador, is the Representative Councillor of the Caribbean ASEAN Council, and Diplomatic Affairs Envoy of the Eastern Caribbean-Southeast Asia Chamber. He is also the Royal Ambassador of The 35th Sultan of Sulu and North Borneo.
