SportSG apologises for mixing up SEA Games athletes names in banner

Sport Singapore (SportSG) has apologised after it mixed up the names of two footballers on a banner that was meant to drum up support for Singapore's national athletes who were competing in at the ongoing SEA games. 

The names of Young Lions Ajay Robson and Muhammad Ryaan Sanizal were swapped in the banner, a mistake which was first noticed by Facebook netizen Aishwariyah Shanmuganathan. In her post, Shanmuganathan noted that the error was "unacceptable".

Don't miss: SportSG tightens process after investigation into improper handling of shoe recycling project

"These young Singaporean sportsmen have worked so hard to get to where they are, and the minimum we should do is give them the respect and recognition they deserve," she wrote on Facebook. 

She continued by saying:

I am appalled that no one from any of the many organisations stated on that banner, took an effort to vet through the banner before it was printed and put up in the neighborhood.

The banner was from the Ang Mo Kio-Hougang division of Ang Mo Kio GRC but had other organisations such as People’s Association (PA), the Singapore National Olympic Council, the Tote Board and national sports agency SportSG included on it as well.

According to The Straits Times (ST), Shanmuganathan wrote to Ang Mo Kio GRC and PA and received a response saying that the error would be rectified. 

In response to media queries, SportSG confirmed that an error was made and that it was a "clerical error" that was "rectified immediately" after Shanmuganathan brought it to their attention. 

It added that it reached out to Robson, Sanizal and their families to apologise for the error and that the banners were put up to feature athletes in respective constituencies to garner support and pride for them.

SportSG said that it hoped that the incident would not "overshadow" the hard work and effort of our local athletes who are representing Singapore at the SEA Games and thanked Singaporeans for their continued support. 

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to SportSG for more information. 

This is also not the first time that SportSG has been in the news in recent months. Recently, SportSG issued an apology and tightened processes after an investigation by Reuters revealed that old sneakers meant to be recycled for use in the building of running tracks and playgrounds in Singapore ended up being sold in a shop in Indonesia.

For the recycling project, SportSG worked with sporting goods retailer Decathlon, chemical company Dow, Standard Chartered bank, surface solutions firm B.T. Sports and local waste management company Alba-WH. Under the initiative, the public were encouraged to donate and recycle their sports shoes at 100 collection points islandwide from July 5 last year.

The initiative aimed to collect and recycle 170,000 pairs of shoes annually to be used as infrastructure materials for sports facilities. However, Reuters decided to hide a tracking device in one of the donated shoes and followed the sounds of the tracker right to a mound of old sneakers in a second-hand shoe store in Indonesia.

When MARKETING-INTERACTIVE reached out, SportSG confirmed that the project partners of the shoe recycling programme were first informed about Reuter’s observations in January 2023. “Upon being told, an investigation led by Alba-WH – the project’s collection partner in this programme - was commenced immediately to look into the issue. At the same time, measures were immediately taken by Alba-WH to tighten up the process chain in the interim,” a spokesperson said.

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