Monday, June 22, 2009

Yet another call!

Another call for the M-League has been called.

Is this change going to give fresh breath to Malaysian soccer?

For all you know, the State FAs have already drawn their knives and are sharpening it, to get rid of the very people who suggested it.

That should be no surprise because it is the State FAs who rule in the FA of Malaysia. If there is anybody who threatens their supremacy, they will do everything within their means to get rid of them.

So, Tuanku Sultan, better beware.

Don't blame the FA of Malaysia and the Sultan of Pahang for the ills of Malaysian soccer. Blame the State FAs. They are the main culprits.

Just to underline the powers of the State FA, on Sunday at the FA of Malaysia Congress, they shot down the new constitution which was in line with demands by the international governing body. (Read this NST story).

Managing a M-League for about eight teams who are financially sound is nothing new. There was a study-group from FA of Malaysia who went to Japan and Korea not so long ago and came back hailing the League. What happened after that? We still go about running our M-League the way we want - pleasing all the affiliates!

For starters, the Malaysian League should have never gone semi-professional, let alone professional.

Now we are talking about going back to Semi-Pro. This is nothing new again. It has been written over and over. But who cares? (Refer to these stories a; - b; c; d; e)

Let us start talking about schools soccer and a visionary five or ten years development programme to see Malaysian soccer rise again. But no one is going to talk about it because it is long-term, no immediate monetary gains and it is sheer hard work.

You can revamp the M-league anyway you want, but there is no way the Malaysian soccer standard is going to rise.

4 comments:

GombakRock said...

hello there mr.tony,

don't you think that by going back to the semi-pro status is a step backwards?? i think back in the semi-pro era we were quite ok not because of the semi-pro status but because of the structure back then...

back then the state FA's run their own leagues...e.g liga selangor, liga k.l ,liga perak etc...and from this pool of talent they formed a team to compete in the malaysia cup each year...if a player is consistently performs than he is considered to be selected for the national team... ergo not every ahmad,acong and muthu can play for the national team...they have to go through a structure...

for example...the great mokhtar dahari played for kelab sultan sulaiman,pkns, talasco and kwong yik bank at club level...when the malaysia cup come around he will don the merah kuning colours...

back then if you play for a malaysia cup team was a real honor let alone play for a national team..i know this old timer whom goes on and on about the olden days when he played for the armed forces every time the subject of football came into light...he was so bloody proud of that feat and he's not even in the first 11..and dont get me started on the story of how this old timer played in the same field with mokhtar dahari for only 10 minutes!!!

i'm 100% with you that the state fa's were to blame for the current deterioration of our football...

GombakRock said...

for me the state fa's are responsible for the development of football in their respective state... be it facilities,youth,coaching, administration and even refereeing!!

the problem is now that the state f.a's are to busy running their state teams and the grant from fam is 100% channeled to that endeavor rather than the development of the game!!!

i suggest that our pro-league should consists of 8-10 financially-stable CLUBS...NO STATE TEAMS!!! every state should have a a semi-pro league run by their respective state f.a's this will be the main pool of talent...in the same time a PROPER university league must exist not the mickey mouse one that we currently have!!!
and every year the show-piece event of our footballing calendar is THE MALAYSIA CUP where the best pro, semi-pro and university players play for the state teams!!!

for me under this format only the best player can play pro footie... if a player is not good enough than he can play semi-pro where he can be developed and ultimately make the jump to pro-footie... if a player wants an education and at the same time have the talent he can play in the uni-league...

for me going back to semi-pro would not solve our problem... we will only hold-back the good players who are real "PROFESSIONALS"...furthermore back in 2007 after our asian cup debacle some quaters were demanding for us to turn back to semi-pro...at that time ibrahim saad (the sect gen of fam at that time) said that if we do that there will be negative repercussions as we cant play in some of fifa sanctioned tourney/games because of our semi-pro status....i dont know whether this is true or not...i hope you can shed some light on this issue...

tony mariadass said...

GombakRock, as to your query, as far as I know there is no rule stating that if a country does not have a professional league, they cannot compete in FIFA sanctioned tournaments. Even the AFC rules for their AFC club championship does not specific that clubs have to be professional. They only state that two teams will represent from the top domestic league and one team from the top domestic knockout competition. However, all teams competing in international tournaments are subject to the approval of the AFC or FIFA competitions committee.

GombakRock said...

thanks mr.tony

so what ibrahim saad said back then were just pure bollocks...however i still think that going back to semi-pro is a step backwards...