Football

Welcome to the Football section of my website. Here you'll find out everything I did in football, predominantly in Singapore at a grassroots level, and how it's led me to what I do today.

Growing up in Singapore, I was never really interested in European football. I was always more drawn to Asian football, and supporting the local football scene in Singapore. Singapore is roughly seven or eight hours ahead of Europe (depending on time of year and country), meaning games in SGT were at 3/4am.

This made is pretty impossible to watch games as 1) I was still in school and, 2) I was a competitive swimmer and had to get up at 4am for training after getting home at about 10/11pm. We trained Monday to Saturdays predominantly, still training early in the morning on a Saturday so by the time Sunday came around, I needed to catch up on sleep and homework. However this worked in my favour because it gave me even more reason to support local football to get my football fix. A lot of Singaporeans tend to watch the European leagues rather than the local leagues, but for me I always wanted to watch the local and Asian leagues.

I was always connected to football in some way growing up because of my dad and brother. My brother played football in school, and my dad was involved with Singapore football in multiple ways. I always tried to go to as many SLeague (now known as Singapore Premier League) as I could, and even travelled internationally to watch the Singapore national team play.

Grassroots & Women's Football

Grassroots football in Singapore is the foundation of why I do what I do today. I started watching the Singapore national team, and local clubs of Singapore play in what was then known as the 'SLeague', when I was a child. However, I started properly working in Singapore football when I was about 15 years old, and this carried all the way through for years after to when we left Singapore to move to the UK.

One thing that very obviously lacked in Singapore football was the visibility for every league and team underneath the main professional league. The grassroots scene received little to no coverage. There were no photographers or videographers at these events, not from the national news or at a local club level. The only times you'd have coverage was when it was big games. School tournaments, the youth leagues, women leagues.. nothing. This didn't sit right with me, and I felt the need to do something. This was something my dad also recognised, and before I pulled out to homeschool, he was covering the grassroots level football and at majority of the games be the only photographer there. I couldn't imagine playing football for years, and having no photos or videos to show for it in the years after. I understood at 15 years old that the visibility and support to the grassroots level was important. I've always loved creating content since I was little, stealing my dad's film cameras and making video diaries for YouTube, so I knew I had the skills and talent to be able to give the grassroots football scene in Singapore coverage.

The same was for the Women's football scene on the media side, with the addition of not having a proper development system like the men's team did. A lot of clubs that had teams competing at the top level for the men's team, wouldn't have women's team. A lot of women in Singapore played football, they just didn't have the platform to be able to train and develop. It was an issue that affected many other countries across the world, but I wanted to do what I could to change it and give women footballers in Singapore the opportunities to be footballers.

With grassroots and women's football, I held multiple roles within the Singapore football scene.

Head Of Content [German Football Academy]
Assistant Manager, Administrator & Physio (Women's Team) [Tampines Rovers FC]
Team Manager & Administrator (Under 17s) [Tampines Rovers FC]
Head Of Videography (All Teams) [Tampines Rovers FC]
Assistant Head Of Digital Marketing (All Teams) [Tampines Rovers FC]
Freelance Reporter & Journalist [Singapore Youth and Women Teams For Clubs & Country]
Freelance Videographer [Singapore Youth and Women Teams For Clubs & Country]

The full details of the breakdown of my roles can be found here (aka my CV, don't worry it's on my website), but I did cover a lot of roles in Singapore grassroots football because I was passionate about it. I wanted to do as much as I could across a range of different roles to provide as much positive impact as I could. I knew I had the skills to do it.

When I pulled out of traditional school and moved to homeschool, I went all in with grassroots and women's football. My formal education I put behind the football, because to me the football was more important and it was an chance that I knew would help me develop on multiple levels but more importantly, help contribute so much at a grassroots and women's level.

A Deep Dive: Grassroots & Women's Football

As mentioned earlier, grassroots football in Singapore didn't receive much media attention and support. Thus, I made it my mission to give the players the coverage they deserve but also supported them where I could so they could feel like footballers.

As 'Head Of Content' at the German Football Academy, the age range of players was between 6 to 16. I had free reign to decide the direction I wanted to take the marketing of the club videography wise so I decided to make summary videos of all the teams the club had including interviews with the coaches. I fully planned, produced, edited, created thumbnails, and scheduled all the videos myself. This was a challenge as the only team that we could actually create video based content for was the Under 16 team, and the interviews with the coaches. All the other videos I had to get creative and lead with photos. The German Football Academy was my first proper dive into working in grassroots football, and I feel proud of the work I managed to achieve here when I was 15 years old as the players who were part of the academy will always have these videos to look back on. It's a reminder of their history in football and the journeys of their life.

Tampines Rovers Football Club was where I managed to fully and properly dive into the grassroots football scene, and where I felt I managed to provide the best contribution and support. Being the 'Head Of Videography' and 'Assistant Head Of Digital Marketing' for all the teams, being the 'Team Manager & Administrator' for the Under 17s and the 'Assistant Manager, Administrator & Physio' for the Women's team are some of my proudest roles that I've managed to hold. I first made several videos of before the club made me their videographer, and gave me access to all their social media channels. I had to create a YouTube channel for the club as they didn't have one, and also a new Twitter account.

For the media side of the roles I held, I also had free reign for the direction I wanted to take the club. Thus, I was fully responsible for the content that was being pushed out. The roles I did included but wasn't limited to for all teams: writing match previews and reports, designing and producing match posters, and interviewing players with me either being on or off camera. I was in full control of all video content on all levels (producing, editing, posting, etc) being pushed out on the official club channels. I ensured that all teams, especially the grassroots and women's teams were covered and receiving the marketing they deserved. Videos ranged from trainings and interviews, matchlights, to community outreaches and more. When needed, I also stepped up as a photographer for the various teams during training sessions and matches. I had to make sure that content was being pushed out to the fans daily, and I was producing quality content for a club like Tampines Rovers FC.

All of this came off my own accord, the club wasn't telling me what to do. I wanted to make sure that I could cover and do as much as I could, to make sure that I could make a positive impact for grassroots and women's football. This was the same mentality I had for the Under 17 and Women's team roles that I held.

I had to organise the kits for both of the teams, communicating and going to the warehouse of the club's supplier to ensure that the teams had the proper club kits to start competing in. For the Under 17s, I designed custom shirts and track pants made for the coaching team, again communicating with the supplier to get this done. We also brought home and washed the kits for the players ourselves, and bringing it back for every game. For both teams, the water and the snacks such as oranges for half time, we bought ourselves and brought to matches but also training sessions. I stepped up to being the physio for the women's team for the 2016 season after our physio couldn't commit to us anymore, using my knowledge in sports science from school. I ensured to organise team bonding sessions for both of the teams as well. During transfer windows, I was responsible for organising, managing, and ensuring all players and officials were registered (and deregistered if necessary) with both the Football Association Of Singapore (FAS) and FIFA. This meant having to go all round Singapore to where players stayed, to make it convenient for them, to get them to sign all the required documents (printed and sorted by myself at home) and so I could get all their needed identification. It also meant for myself a lot of late nights and early mornings to make sure everything was uploaded to the FIFA systems, and that the teams were fully registered. I was also responsible for booking pitches for the teams to train on every week as we didn't have a dedicated training ground, and I was also in charge of recording data such as match statistics and attendance. The team manager position in 2017 for the Under 17 team made me the youngest team manager Singapore had for any team across all of the leagues.

Despite holding 7 different roles at Tampines Rovers at basically the same time, I was always able to excel at each role individually without issue. I was also known for being very efficient and someone you could rely on to get the job done. My time at Tampines Rovers FC gave me the opportunity to travel all around Asia mainly with our first team who were competing in the AFC Cup and AFC Champions League. I had full access, meaning I was also able to sit pitch side during the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) matches. I will forever be grateful for the positive impact I was able to make for grassroots and women's football through Tampines Rovers FC.

Alongside all of the above and during my time at Tampines Rovers, I wanted to make sure I could try and make even more of a positive impact to the grassroots and women's team so I did more. I made myself a freelance videographer and photographer, and with this it meant that I was also able to cover the youth teams from other football clubs but also school tournaments and fan clubs. I did the same for them as what I was doing for Tampines Rovers, doing squad highlights and interviewing the players.

My videos in Singapore football amassed hundreds of thousands of views, and majority of these views came from the grassroots and women's scene. Players, coaches, and families were sharing my videos with all of their friends and families. They finally had something to show to others what they were doing, something that for years to come they could watch back on and one day even show their own children and grandchildren. I know deep down that I had indeed made a positive impact and helped the scene when players would message me or come up to me at games saying thank you, but also fans of Singapore football. To this day, every month my most popular videos on YouTube are the ones from the grassroots and women's scene in Singapore football. That's what makes me proud, is that years later, the players and families are still watching my videos that have themselves in, being able to reflect on their time in grassroots and women's football when they were younger. I made a lasting impact on the grassroots and women's scene in Singapore football, and I am forever grateful that I took a leap and did it. You can watch all of my video content on here: Alia Harvey YouTube Channel.

A Deep Dive: Professional (Men's) Football

Whilst most of my work was around grassroots and women's football in Singapore, I did do work within the top level of Singapore football as well.

As mentioned earlier, I travelled around Asia mainly because of Tampines Rovers FC men's first team who were competing in the AFC Cup and AFC Champions League, but I also travelled with them for their pre-season tour in 2017 and made content from this.

Alongside photography, my work was mainly around videography where I was producing, filming, editing, creating the thumbnails, and posting the content myself. Videographer wise, I created videos such as the team travelling internationally and back, summary videos of our tours, interview current and ex-players alongside members of the board and coaching staff (with me being both off and on camera), create player profiles, match teasers, our press conferences, training videos, match highlights, fan club videos, community outreaches, and more. I did the same for clubs that weren't Tampines Rovers FC and their senior teams as well.

Whilst all of the above is normal in European football, the things I was doing was barely visible in Singapore football. No other club was doing it like Tampines Rovers FC. Now, you'll see more and more clubs posting like how I used to all those years ago because they now see the value in it and invest. I'm glad that whilst I managed to make an impact mainly at the grassroots and women's level, I managed to do so at the professional level.

My time spent within Singapore football, both as a fan growing up watching the game and working in it, is the reason why I do what I do today. I got back into football via the gaming franchise FIFA21 in January 2021, and I only started because I missed working directly in football and the love I experienced daily for the game.

I'll forever be grateful for Singapore football.