Football is often praised for the beautiful game that it is, but for Singapore and Malaysia, it also brings out fierce rivalry.

It's normal for fans to cheer, and in some cases, jeer and taunt in matches, and certainly, Malaysian fans are wont to break out into chants to cheer their national team on when our team is pitted against theirs.

One of the most common cheers they are known to shout is is "Singapore itu anjing", which roughly translates to "Singapore, those dogs."

Here's a video of that chant taking place, which was uploaded onto Twitter by Twitter user @pal_rudeboy, and subsequently included in a report by The Straits Times.

The rivalry is real man ...
Malaysia fans chanting :
"Singapore, Itu Anjing"
Which also means :
Singapore that dog ! pic.twitter.com/dIsKZSinnI

— Amritpal Singh (@pal_rudebwoy) August 21, 2017

https://twitter.com/STsportsdesk/status/899972311457054721

The tweet isn't loading properly because by Wednesday evening, the folks at The Straits Times took it down, and also quietly removed it from their article on this.

All is not what it seems

Before you start getting mad at all Malaysians, here's where it gets a bit complicated.

A  Facebook search of the video via the terms "Singapore itu anjing" will cough up the exact same video shared very recently by other users and media outlets:

What's curious, though, is that similar looking footage turned up as early as in 2014.

In case it wasn't apparent, a few of the thumbnails of the video from 2017 features same guy with the blue shirt, cap and towel on the bottom left, as with these videos uploaded in 2014 and 2015:

But wait, there's more.

Searching terms related to the chant on YouTube will bring you the same crowd, cheering the same chant, even further back in 2012 during the AFF Suzuki Cup, five years before the tweets we've shown above.

Here's a screenshot from Monday's tweets on Malaysian fans, at the 0:11 mark:

And here's the screenshot from the 2012 video, also at the 0:11 mark:

Chant did happen

Now, we're not saying these chants and jeers didn't happen this year. In an interview with The Straits Times, Young Lions defender Irfan Fandi says he did hear the chants while playing their away game against their hosts, whom they lost 1-2 to. Here's what he said:

"I heard it but I was already expecting to hear it so it didn't affect me. I just ignored it."

The Malaysia Organising Committee (Masoc) has since urged Malaysian fans to behave.

According to a Malaysian netizen Adrian Lim, however, the chants came from a specific group of fans known as "Ultras Malaya", and it's a way for Malaysian fans to cheer on the team.

"This group of people singing are called "Ultras Malaya". They rehearse regularly, write new songs, bring their drums to the stadium, and so forth to cheer on the national team. Every. Single. Game.

This is not called insulting the opponents. It is pure football rivalry. (As in any other sports, it's part of the game)"

Regardless, chant or no chant, perhaps it's true that the exact same video  the exact same group of passionate fans will be a constant staple to future Singapore vs Malaysia matches.

Top image adapted via pal_rudebwoy's Twitter and via Aril Effendi's YouTube video