November 19, 2004

S-league newcomers Paya Lebar Kovan have chosen a seahorse to be their mascot.

The Hougang-based club's spokesman, Steven Lee, said that their 6-member executive committee chose the seahorse because of its elegance & the club's proximity to the sea.

Lee said they wanted the elephant initially, but decided against it as it was the mascot for defunct S-league club Clementi Khalsa. Also, it would not have been nice to be called pigs, chickens or ducks. More so pigs, because it is considered taboo by the Malays. Then, they also thought of the crocodile because there used to be quite a number of them in our area but it would not be nice for people to start calling them "buayas'.

"Buaya" means crocodile in Malay, but is also local slang for skirt-chaser.

That is why Lee added finally, they settled for the seahorse because they are near the sea & Sungei Serangoon used to have a lot of them.

The seahorse is known for curling its prehensile tail around seagrasses or coral to camouflage itself - a survival technique.

On their club logo, Paya Lebar Kovan will have the seahorse's tail wrapped around a football.

Also at the same time, Paya Lebar Kovan have signed Japanese sports brand Mizuno as their apparel sponsor. They will pump in about $200,000 worth of equipment.

The club will be playing in an all-yellow first strip at their homeground Hougang Stadium while the second set will be all green.

They have chosen yellow as it is a colour often associated with Malay & Chinese royalty while for green it is for the fact it meant freshness.