Football is the beautiful game. "Goal!" is the universal exclamation of victory. Soccer is the age long game which brings together 11 boys, test their skills, and turns them into men. It is no surprise that football is loved by many and embraced by the world. An unusual sight in Raffles Institution (RI) is of an empty field during recess or lunch, without any trace of RI boys enjoying the game they love. We love soccer. There is no other way to say it. In fact, many old boys even come back regularly to RI just to have a bout of soccer, and they are in their university years. Sadly, RI currently has no B or C-division soccer team. However, no other game has had such an impact on us Rafflesians, and we feel it is time we gave it its deserved recognition. Many Rafflesians feel that the Raffles Institution (Junior College) Football Team is not up to the standard that the word Rafflesian has established. In other words, the football team that Raffles Institution currently has is not a Rafflesian one. It is not one capable of making a name for itself, and there is a simple solution: forming a B and/or C-division football team. Football is a convenient sport. All that is needed is a ball and willing players. Virtually anything can be used as goalposts. Shoes, stones, even sticks. The only thing the school needs to manage is pitch maintenance and probably coaching. The school already has soccer balls, and currently the pitch is very well-maintained. In fact, hiring a coach is merely a perk, one that the team could still function without. All that is needed for the Rafflesian team to excel, is competition. By starting earlier off, in the first year instead of the fifth year, the team would have gained more exposure to competitive football. We, therefore, request the administration of Raffles Institution to consider reestablishing a football Co-Curricular Activity, or some form of football club, to compete in inter-school football competitions. RI's motto is "Auspicium Melioris Aevi", or Latin for "Hope of a better age". The Old Rafflesians' Association (ORA) boasts on its website, "Did you know that the RI football team of 1970 (which captured all the major schoolboy soccer titles [in Singapore]) featured three future S-League bosses, a future national coach and four future national players?" If RI was able to harbour great superstars such as Quah Kim Song and M Kumar, why not now? If Raffles was to embrace and nurture football as a competitive sport, wouldn't that provide hope of a better age? This petition will be mailed to the administration of RI by the end of 2011. If you support our efforts to reestablish a competitive football team for Years 1-4 of Raffles Institution, please add your signature below.

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