Saturday, November 27, 2010
Another Private Teams Quits Malaysian Football
After the 2009 Malaysia Super League two private teams, My Team and Kuala Muda, both withdrew from Malaysia's top league. Now we have KL Plus knocking it on the head.
For a country that is so fanatical about the game I find it difficult to understand how a private football club can find it so difficult to get a foothold in the local game.
Sorry, I can. Walk the streets of KL etc and you will see plenty of Liverpool, Chelsea etc shirts. People find it easy to identify with a club side thousands of miles away. No-one seemingly wants to identify with a team that was founded on a reality TV show, My Team, sponsored by a car dealership, Kuala Muda NAZA to give them their full name, or named after a toll road, KL Plus.
The demand is undoubtedly there, there just seems to be a crisis of imagination at the highest levels of how to tap into that interest. Indonesia at least has a debate about the future of football there and it is widely accepted change needs to happen. The Liga Primer Indonesia is just the opening salvo in that battle. But Malaysia just plods along with its annual brainstorming sessions that produce little concrete.
Saying that, the national team go into the AFF Cup as the dark horse that could upset Indonesia's ambitions.
# posted by Me @ 5:54 AM 
