Feb

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When Politics Gets into Football

February 3, 2009 | 1 Comment

I am not a football fan but I did follow Semi-Pro matches many years ago. When Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) called M-League a professional league and with the games that is as good as primary school kids playing in abandoned field, I stopped following the news. For me, the days of Semi-Pro are more exciting and energetic than the so called pro of today. The crowd speaks for itself. We heard of sold out tickets back then, but today, we see empty stadium during matches in the TV news.

But what surprised me most was when I saw the news in New Straits Times on Monday that FAM sacked national coach B. Sathianathan and national team assistant manager Datuk Soh Chin Aun. The first question that came across my mind is why the assistant manager? Where and who is the manager? It is normal for under performing teams to sack their coach or manager but if the assistant manager is to be sacked, normally he will go together with the manager.

So, I read the news further and found that the manager is Khairy Jamaluddin, or what they called the official manager. The job of manager however, was delegated to Datuk Soh Chin Aun. Not satisfied, I searched for the news in The Star. Here is an extract from the report in The Star,

“He (Datuk Soh Chin Aun) was only supposed to be the assistant manager for both the national team and the Under-23 squad.

The FAM had appointed Khairy Jamaluddin as national team manager.

As Khairy was busy with his political duties, Chin Aun was told to accompany the team to overseas stints and for tournaments on behalf of Khairy.”

When FAM deputy president Datuk Redzuan Sheikh Ahmad announced the decision, he said that FAM executive committee felt that new blood is needed to bring changes to the national team.

My thoughts…

1. if Khairy is so busy with politics, why get into football?

2. if Khairy is a busy politician, give him such a important role in national football?

3. if Khairy cannot perform the duty of a manager, why sack the person acted on his behalf?

4. if Khairy failed, why punish Chin Aun?

5. if new blood is needed, why not retire the longest serving president?

6. if new blood is needed, why are there so many old man in the executive committee?

7. if after many sacking and changing throughout the years, the national team is not moving a step forward but instead few steps backward, why not change the people that change other people all this while?

8. if Chin Aun is a Barisan Nasional (BN) Member of Parliament (MP), would he be sacked?

9. if B. Sathianathan is a committee member in Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), would he be sacked?

10. if Khairy Jamaluddin is not the deputy chief of UMNO Youth, would he be retained?

Probably B. Sathianathan’s infamous “the M-League is not football” is true. Probably FAM is an organisation that Fails All Malaysians.

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1 Comment so far

  1. payday loans on January 21, 2010 6:06 am

    The author of headline-malaysia.com has written an excellent article. You have made your point and there is not much to argue about. It is like the following universal truth that you can not argue with: The mousepointer will always be in front of what you are trying to read/write Thanks for the info.

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