Monday, August 24, 2009
Malaysia's mediocre league
MSL in such a pathetic state it badly needs a revamp
ERIC SAMUEL
NO wonder the Super League is being labelled the Super Flop.
On May 23, only 11 fans paid to watch UPB-MyTeam FC play out a drab 0-0 draw with Police in a Super League match.
This is the pathetic state of affairs of the Malaysian Super League (MSL), which will be going into its seventh season next year.
One need not look hard to know that the standard of football in Malaysia is languishing in the abyss.
Just look at our so-called treble winners Kedah. The Canaries were the laughing stock in the AFC Cup competition recently when they were thrashed 8-2 by Vietnamese outfit Binh Duong in a round of 16 match in Ho Chin Minh City.
Vietnam have raised the bar by taking their professional football league seriously – something which caught the attention of Kedah coach Mohd Azraai Khor Abdullah.
Azraai said the following in Vietnam was so big that fans even bought tickets to see their own teams in trainings.
Here in Malaysia, it’s the opposite – we have a professional league but with no foreign players.
UPB-MyTeam’s total attendance for the recently-concluded season (13 home matches) was a mere 17,635 fans and their total collection was a meagre RM180,000 – which is barely enough to settle their players’ one-month salary.
Premier League side Felda United’s total collection for their 13 home matches was less than RM4,000 (at RM5 per ticket).
If you think the state teams are doing better than the clubs, then think again. Sarawak’s total gate collection at home this season was slightly more than RM30,000 while the cost for travelling to one away match is about RM20,000.
In the 14-team Premier League, Sarawak travelled to 13 away matches, which means they would have paid a whopping RM260,000 – and that’s just for travelling expenses alone. What about food and accommodation?
Sarawak are not alone. Except for Kelantan and Selangor, all the other teams – be it in the Super League or the Premier League – have been struggling to attract their fans to fill the stadiums.
Although Selangor are the most successful state in Malaysian football, they too suffered a drop in gate collections – managing only a total of RM1.3mil this season (16 home matches).
Kelantan proved to be the most exciting of the lot, with at least 12,000 fans going through the turnstiles for each of their home matches.
The only saving grace for the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) is the FA Cup final between Selangor and Kelantan, which saw the biggest turnout in the history of the knockout competition since 1990 with an almost capacity crowd of 80,000.
Even the Harimau Muda team, the other bright spark of the season when they emerged champions of the Premier League, failed to ignite the fans’ interest. Although the Harimau Muda home matches were free of charge, the fans stayed away.
Football, to quote English Premier League CEO Richard Scudamore, is all about entertainment value, competitiveness and fans.
And that, in a nutshell, is what the MSL should be all about.
So, it was shocking to see the FAM competitions committee deciding to keep the same format – the tried and tested (and failed) Super League and Premier League – for the next five seasons.
Most of the state FAs are in the red because they are unable to generate any revenue from gate collections.
The fans have voiced their displeasure with the state of affairs of Malaysian football (by staying away) and the media are down-playing the coverage of the MSL.
Yet, FAM are contented to stick with their dull and boring format.
Looks like FAM president Sultan Ahmad Shah’s call to revamp Malaysian football in a bid to lift the standard of the game has fallen on deaf ears again.
But then, it’s not just the format of the competition that FAM should revise.
The governing body should also reconsider their decision to ban foreign imports as this would surely help to raise the quality of the game.
And this is a fact that has not been lost on Perlis FA president Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim and Kelantan’s English coach Peter Butler.
Shahidan said they had been struggling to attract the fans since Zambian imports Phillimon Chepita and Zachariah Simukonda left following the FAM’s ruling to ban foreign players this season.
Butler too strongly believes that good, quality foreign players would make a difference in raising the standard of the game in Malaysia.
Even national striker Norsharul Idlan Talaha of UPB-MyTeam had only good things to say about foreign players.
“I picked up valuable tips and skills by playing alongside Keita Mandjou when I was with Perak,” he said.
Enough said. Now, if only FAM will listen.
COMMENT - The potential is there. The FA Cup final proved that with 80,000 fans attending. But the current format, with its daft 8.45 pm kick offs is a failure (is there a more inconvenient kick off time anywhere in world football?). Don't take my word for it, check out the numbers given above. The fans have spoken. But the FAs aren't up to it.
Every year they have brainstorming sessions and every year nothing changes.
There is a promising crop of young players coming through the system in Malaysia but it is the system that will chew them up and spit them out, worthless and spent. Time perhaps for players like Norsharul to head overseas and try their luck rather than stagnate in the dull pond that is Malaysian football watched over by political appointees and the odd fan.
ERIC SAMUEL
NO wonder the Super League is being labelled the Super Flop.
On May 23, only 11 fans paid to watch UPB-MyTeam FC play out a drab 0-0 draw with Police in a Super League match.
This is the pathetic state of affairs of the Malaysian Super League (MSL), which will be going into its seventh season next year.
One need not look hard to know that the standard of football in Malaysia is languishing in the abyss.
Just look at our so-called treble winners Kedah. The Canaries were the laughing stock in the AFC Cup competition recently when they were thrashed 8-2 by Vietnamese outfit Binh Duong in a round of 16 match in Ho Chin Minh City.
Vietnam have raised the bar by taking their professional football league seriously – something which caught the attention of Kedah coach Mohd Azraai Khor Abdullah.
Azraai said the following in Vietnam was so big that fans even bought tickets to see their own teams in trainings.
Here in Malaysia, it’s the opposite – we have a professional league but with no foreign players.
UPB-MyTeam’s total attendance for the recently-concluded season (13 home matches) was a mere 17,635 fans and their total collection was a meagre RM180,000 – which is barely enough to settle their players’ one-month salary.
Premier League side Felda United’s total collection for their 13 home matches was less than RM4,000 (at RM5 per ticket).
If you think the state teams are doing better than the clubs, then think again. Sarawak’s total gate collection at home this season was slightly more than RM30,000 while the cost for travelling to one away match is about RM20,000.
In the 14-team Premier League, Sarawak travelled to 13 away matches, which means they would have paid a whopping RM260,000 – and that’s just for travelling expenses alone. What about food and accommodation?
Sarawak are not alone. Except for Kelantan and Selangor, all the other teams – be it in the Super League or the Premier League – have been struggling to attract their fans to fill the stadiums.
Although Selangor are the most successful state in Malaysian football, they too suffered a drop in gate collections – managing only a total of RM1.3mil this season (16 home matches).
Kelantan proved to be the most exciting of the lot, with at least 12,000 fans going through the turnstiles for each of their home matches.
The only saving grace for the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) is the FA Cup final between Selangor and Kelantan, which saw the biggest turnout in the history of the knockout competition since 1990 with an almost capacity crowd of 80,000.
Even the Harimau Muda team, the other bright spark of the season when they emerged champions of the Premier League, failed to ignite the fans’ interest. Although the Harimau Muda home matches were free of charge, the fans stayed away.
Football, to quote English Premier League CEO Richard Scudamore, is all about entertainment value, competitiveness and fans.
And that, in a nutshell, is what the MSL should be all about.
So, it was shocking to see the FAM competitions committee deciding to keep the same format – the tried and tested (and failed) Super League and Premier League – for the next five seasons.
Most of the state FAs are in the red because they are unable to generate any revenue from gate collections.
The fans have voiced their displeasure with the state of affairs of Malaysian football (by staying away) and the media are down-playing the coverage of the MSL.
Yet, FAM are contented to stick with their dull and boring format.
Looks like FAM president Sultan Ahmad Shah’s call to revamp Malaysian football in a bid to lift the standard of the game has fallen on deaf ears again.
But then, it’s not just the format of the competition that FAM should revise.
The governing body should also reconsider their decision to ban foreign imports as this would surely help to raise the quality of the game.
And this is a fact that has not been lost on Perlis FA president Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim and Kelantan’s English coach Peter Butler.
Shahidan said they had been struggling to attract the fans since Zambian imports Phillimon Chepita and Zachariah Simukonda left following the FAM’s ruling to ban foreign players this season.
Butler too strongly believes that good, quality foreign players would make a difference in raising the standard of the game in Malaysia.
Even national striker Norsharul Idlan Talaha of UPB-MyTeam had only good things to say about foreign players.
“I picked up valuable tips and skills by playing alongside Keita Mandjou when I was with Perak,” he said.
Enough said. Now, if only FAM will listen.
COMMENT - The potential is there. The FA Cup final proved that with 80,000 fans attending. But the current format, with its daft 8.45 pm kick offs is a failure (is there a more inconvenient kick off time anywhere in world football?). Don't take my word for it, check out the numbers given above. The fans have spoken. But the FAs aren't up to it.
Every year they have brainstorming sessions and every year nothing changes.
There is a promising crop of young players coming through the system in Malaysia but it is the system that will chew them up and spit them out, worthless and spent. Time perhaps for players like Norsharul to head overseas and try their luck rather than stagnate in the dull pond that is Malaysian football watched over by political appointees and the odd fan.
# posted by Me @ 12:18 PM 
