Starting the weekend just past, train commuters will find themselves riding in S.League-themed cabins filled with huge posters of S.League players. Localised club advertisements will also appear at strategic SMRT-run stations to promote the S.League for its 21st season.

Why? S.League and SMRT have started a commercial partnership for the transport operator to promote Singapore's favourite football league.

While this collaboration is heralded as unique and the “first of its kind”, we have good reason to believe (4, to be exact) that the S.League and SMRT, two seemingly unrelated organisations, are really long-lost brothers.

Just look at the similarities:

1. They were once the pride of the land

If you were born in the 70s and early 80s, you would remember how awesome MRT rides were when they first started out in the early nineties. The trains were uncrowded, fully air-conditioned and literally got you to places across the island in minutes. Every train ride was an adventure, especially if you were standing in the section between two train cabins, feeling the full effect of every meander and brake.

Likewise, the S.League was highly popular with local football fans in the late 90s. Before subscription TV and Internet were a thing, S.League games were played to sellout crowds and amazing fanfare. As many as 30,000 fans turned up for some key matches played in the old National Stadium.

It is fair to say that they have both lost a bit of the allure once associated with them. Or maybe it's just our nostalgia.

2. Their biggest media stories in recent years come from foreigners

For the S.League, foreign players have especially in recent years attracted more attention from the media despite being the minority in its playing population — this in part because there is a cap on the number of non-local players per team. In the past, players like Iranian World Cup duo Mohamed Khakpour and Hamid Estili enjoyed much of the limelight, while other distinguished foreign imports include Egmar Goncalves and Peres de Oliveira.

This season, ex-Liverpool and Arsenal player Jermaine Pennant will join the honour roll of foreign players to have graced the S.League and grabbed his share of media attention.

SMRT's foreign personnel made and stayed in the headlines of many a publication in 2012, when about 170 bus drivers from China went on a labour strike — most of us would remember this almost as well as the multiple train breakdowns and disruptions that would happen in the years that followed, more than any other stories about any of its local staff, unfortunately.

3. They are both headed up by ex-SAF commanders. And they ain't too popular

Both organisations are currently headed up by former military men.

The S.League's current CEO is Lim Chin, who held the rank of Colonel and was the former Chief of Artillery with the SAF. Prior to his appointment, Lim had been the Chairman of the SAFFC (currently known as Warriors FC).

SMRT's chief executive is, as most of you would know, Desmond Kuek, who held the rank of Lieutenant-General and was formerly Chief of the Defence Force.

Coincidentally, both Lim and Kuek were appointed to their posts in the year 2012.

4. When things go wrong with either organisation, people blame the MPs

Perhaps the most uncanny resemblance between the S.League and SMRT is how people react to things going wrong – blaming the MPs involved.

When he was in office, ex-Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew could be certain he would be the target of pretty much every irate Singaporean's mocking and anger as soon as a delay or disruption hit any of SMRT's train lines (to be fair, this would happen to SBS Transit's as well).

Likewise, over the past few years, passionate S.League fans have directed their frustration and angst at current Football Association of Singapore (FAS) President Zainudin Nordin, who was an MP until retiring from politics and deciding not to stand in the 2015 General Election. There is a faction of fans who had been very unhappy and very vocal against some of FAS's decisions, from re-joining the Malaysia domestic competitions as LionsXII to the proposal of the ASEAN Super League.

See? Long-lost brothers. Birds of a feather. It's meant to be. And that's why this deal is so perfect for them.

Top photo courtesy of the S.League.

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