Of Malaysian Football

This is the excerpts of today’s Utusan Malaysia report on statement by the President of FAM: -

Pemain-pemain bola sepak profesional negara ini harus mencontohi sikap pemain-pemain bola sepak Afrika yang amat mementingkan disiplin dan prestasi daripada meletakkan kepentingan diri semata-mata.

Presiden Persatuan Bola Sepak Malaysia (FAM), Sultan Ahmad Shah bertitah, sikap sanggup menerima rasuah atau terlibat dengan gejala tersebut bukan hanya akan memusnahkan masa depan mereka tetapi juga nama baik negara.

"Untuk menjadi pemain profesional, pemikiran juga mesti profesional. Tengok pemain-pemain Afrika, mereka berdisiplin dan bermain bersungguh-sungguh kerana bagi mereka ini mata pencarian."

"Mereka bukan sahaja berusaha mengharumkan nama negara tetapi dapat mewakili kelab-kelab ternama di England," titah Sultan Pahang.

What a joke from the President of FAM…oops! I don’t understand why he was referred to as Sultan of Pahang when he was talking in his capacity as the President of FAM. I sincerely believe that our newspapers need to really differentiate the status of the person who talks. To refer him as the Sultan of Pahang when he talks about our football in his capacity as the President of FAM is not only misleading but also wrong. In fact, it can create fear among the public to criticize the President because they are not sure if they may be charged for insulting the Sultan when in actual fact, they are just condemning the President of FAM. Well, here, I am going to criticize the President of FAM and not the Sultan of Pahang.

First of all, I wonder why in Malaysian sports, it is a must to have either Sultans/royalties or politicians as the President or office bearers? I wonder why? To have these people around does not help us in improving our sports. Not at all. I do not see any good reason or just a simple reason to have these people around. The FAM President said that to become a professional player, you must think like one. Let me tell this FAM President who has been holding the post for such a long time and do no good to our national football team. If you want them to become professional player, having them to think like one is not a priority. It is the utmost important to have the professional management and get the management team think like professional. Professional in this context means you do nothing than football. We need someone who thinks nothing but football. But what we have are all these politicians and the royalties who have to think of so many other important and not so important things than football and perhaps, football is the least thing that comes to their mind. As for the FAM President, what credentials that he has to enable him to sit in that post for such a long time? I wonder.

He (I mean the FAM President) also asked the players to look at those African players in term of their professionalism and discipline and set them as an example. Oh my goodness! Don’t tell me this President of FAM does not have the ability to think like a President. Before asking the players to look at the African players, I think the President and the gang have to look at the African Football Associations first and learn from them on how they build such a strong football teams. Learn from them whether they have any royalties or politicians heading the FAs. If Africa is too far for him (the President), just look at England (well, I believe the President always travel to England). Does Queen Elizabeth hold any post in their FA? Or Prince Charles or any of his two sons? The answer is NO. They leave football to the professionals to manage them and then only they can produce the results…Oooops! In Malaysia, FAM does produce results but in a humiliating way.