Tickets sold out, but they climbed their way in

TNP PHOTO: Yang Rong

EVEN though it took place almost 40 years ago, Thiyaga Raju remembers his first Malaysia Cup game like it was yesterday.

It was 1974, Singapore was playing Penang in the Malaysia Cup semi-finals. When Thiyaga and his friends got to the National Stadium, the tickets had sold out. Desperate, they climbed the gates of the stadium.

Then, the police released the dogs on them. But luckily, he and his friends managed too climb all the way in.

Now 50, Thiyaga might have escaped from the jaws of police dogs that night, but he was bitten by the football bug and never looked back.