Stop Starhub and Singtel Advertising during National Anthems World Cup 2010

We thank Starhub and Singtel for bringing us the World Cup to Singapore. If not for their continuous efforts to negotiate with FIFA that eventually secured the deal, football fans here will face a blackout from the worlds greatest football competition(wearecertain thatthey aremaking ahandsome profit out of this,butwe understand as this is the nature of their business).

However, there is a major concern in which we would like the management of these two great establishments to know. If you have already noticed, before the start of the match, the singing of the National anthem by the two sets of teams is nowhere to be seen. Instead, they have been replaced by commercials that by the time they ended, the players have all finished singing. This is the first time we have come across such a thing from all my years of watching international football matches.

In many countries, the singing of the National Anthem is a way to express their patriotism and love for their country. It is a chance for bonding and togetherness that words can merely explain.

By denying supporters from their respective country, a chance to sing their anthem is not only insulting, but also a disgraceful and shameful act. (These apply specially to the foreigners in Singapore whose country is playing in the world cup).

In fact, it is by-law and mandatory in some countries that the singing of the national anthem is shown on television before every football match. I hope the two Telcos are not trying to tell us that the commercials are more important than National Anthem of a country. They should have charge few more dollars for the subscription but leave the national anthems advertising free.

We ask Starhub and Singtel, to stop airing commercials during the singing of the teams respective National Anthems. If this is impossible due to prior agreement with Tiger and VISA, then we hope that this petition would be useful for future events.