Mirza Salim, founder and director of Matchday Affairs, is not your average 42-year-old Singaporean.
From the young age of 10, he grew up ill for most of his life. He was diagnosed with brain arteriovenous malformation (AVM)—a rare condition where the blood vessels are tangled, creating irregular connections between the arteries and veins in the brain—at just 19 years old.
“I always thought I was normal; I learnt from a young age that I have to work harder than others—to work harder because of the illness that had handicapped me a little,” he added.
Hence, when he recovered from his fifth brain surgery, Mirza, a hardcore fan of the English football team Liverpool, became set to realise his dream of watching his favourite team play live.
Eventually, he flew with his wife to Anfield Stadium in Liverpool, England, in December 2016 to watch a match between Liverpool (his favourite team) and Manchester City to celebrate his recovery.
“And Liverpool won,” shared Mirza in an interview with The Straits Times in 2024.
The birth of Matchday Affairs
But thousands have not had the one-in-a-million opportunity to catch their favourite football team play live at their home stadium—leading Mirza’s wife to encourage him to start a football travel agency.
“My wife had a eureka moment, and it just went off from there,” he explained.
Before starting Matchday Affairs, Mirza worked in engineering as a draftsperson for 11 years before entering the hospitality industry in 2016, where he joined Quins Travel and Tours—a travel agency that focuses on organising Muslim-friendly trips.
During his three-year stint at Quins, Mirza shared that he gained industry know-how while observing and working for his in-laws, who own the agency. From customer management to booking flights and accommodations, he described his experience as his “apprenticeship programme.”
During this period, Mirza also organised his first tour to Anfield in 2017, allowing him to learn more about the football tourism industry firsthand. “It was different then. We just whack only with our first trip.”
Soon after, Mirza decided to venture out and launch Matchday Affairs as a full-fledged business in 2019. As for his starting capital, he started the business completely bootstrapped and claimed to have started the business with S$0.
I was in a unique position and lucky enough to start football tours under my in-laws’ travel agency. It was where I was able to get the feasibility and the proof of concept which led to the birth of Matchday Affairs in 2019.
Mirza Salim, founder and director of Matchday Affairs
Solving the problems that football fans face
To watch a live football game, you’d need tickets—that alone is a challenge to many fans and the “most challenging and tricky” hurdle to Mirza.
Anyone can purchase tickets for in-person matches, especially from third-party websites. However, there is also a high possibility that these sellers might not be authorised, and fans risk receiving fake tickets or, worse, getting ghosted by them.
Matchday Affairs aims to eliminate fans’ concerns regarding ticketing. The company also handles the tedious logistics planning, allowing fans to focus on enjoying their matches.
However, establishing their ticketing network was no easy game. Mirza described the business’s early days as “scary and challenging” as they grappled with the uncertainty of their ticketing partner’s ability to deliver.
The company also had difficulty marketing its products to its desired audiences, spurring Mirza to enrol himself in courses to upskill and make a trip to the United Kingdom as a “dry run” for their proposed itinerary—all of which he said cost him approximately S$3,000 in total.
This became a worthy investment, allowing Matchday Affairs to grow its following and diversify its tours, curating the itineraries for four football teams: Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, and Chelsea.
The company has also established relationships with partnering companies to acquire match tickets and has developed a “stringent process” to verify and qualify them.
According to Mirza, its tour packages are priced around S$4,000-S$6,000 per person, and prices differ depending on the stage of the football season. He explained that the prices are determined based on several costs, including flights, accommodation, and stadium tours.
Keeping prices low in the travel industry is an ongoing challenge. As such, the company targets fans who “have disposable income,” particularly retirees in their 50s and 60s who have received their retirement funds.
While Mirza has chosen not to disclose the size of their profit margins, he stated that it’s “not bad.”
Since their first tour, Matchday Affairs has organised more than 50 tour groups, averaging 14 to 20 people each. He prefers to keep his tour groups of a similar size, although he has had groups of between 30 and 50 people.
Moving forward, Matchday Affairs aims to become Asia’s number-one football tourism agency. It also plans to expand to neighbouring markets, such as Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia, as they have larger fanbases of the English Premier League.
As for Mirza, he hopes that sharing his story can inspire others to pursue their dreams and ambitions, even when things aren’t always the easiest.
Never give up when life isn’t always smooth sailing. Always count your blessings. Be kind.
Mirza Salim, founder and director of Matchday Affairs
- Learn more about Matchday Affairs here.
- Read other stories we have written on Singaporean startups here.
Featured Image Credit: Matchday Affairs