Sunday, March 15, 2026
No-One Likes Them, They Don't Care
GUEST COLUMN - Dez Corkhill
Congratulations to Johor Darul Ta’zim. A 1-0 loss in Hiroshima, Japan, meant that the 11-time-in-a-row Malaysian Champions qualified 3-2 on aggregate, and so became the first team to make it to the quarter-finals of the modern format of the AFC Champions League (Elite).
Selangor made it to the Final of the 1967 Asian Champions’ tournament only to lose to Israel’s Hapoel Tel Aviv (that would be an interesting match-up these days), but in the modern era, Johor’s success is unprecedented.
JDT nearly qualified last season only to lose controversially to Buriram United (who have made the last-8 again this campaign) in the last 16.
But now they’re into the last 8 in Asia for the first time, and the expensively (for ASEAN football purposes) recruited Spaniards, Brazilians, Argentines and (largely recruited) Malaysian and Heritage Malaysian (FIFA banned, or otherwise) locals will find themselves matched up against the likes of Benzema, Milinkovic-Savic, Darwin Nunez, etc etc et al. The best of the wealthy West against lil’ ol’ JDT.
However, you’ll be aware that it’s NOT a generally popular success in Malaysia.
I understand WHY it’s not popular. Even if you exclude accusations largely being thrown at Johor for some kind of culpability in the “Heritage Seven” issue (too much to go into here), there are football reasons why JDT arent popular.
For example, I don’t think they’re the “nicest” team in the world. There’s gamesmanship (when “appropriate”) in the team; in commentary, I often refer to their physicality, and that goes along with plenty of macho posturing, and no little element of play-acting and game delaying tactics. But, whilst I (who never played anywhere near this level) don’t enjoy watching it, it seems to happen only when professionally expedient.
But the MAIN accusation against them is seemingly that there aren’t enough local or heritage players regularly playing. That rather dismisses selections for Afiq Fazail, Syihan Hazmi, and pre and post injured contributions from Shahrul Saad and Arif Aiman in the AFC Champions League, plus Syamhi Safari and Nazmi Faiz in progress (to be confirmed!) to the ASEAN Club Championship semi-final.
But – and it’s a huge reason - when JDT played with local and heritage players, they weren’t good enough to qualify for the latter stages of Asian Elite competitions.
As recently as November 2023, a JDT team including the likes of (the very good) Matt Davies, Syihan, Feroz Baharuddin, Hong Wan, Afiq, Arif Aiman, plus subs Shahrul Saad, Lavere Corbin-Ong and Natxo Insa were battered 5-0 in Japan by Kawasaki Frontale.
This was same group of players were in the midst of a (still running) 100+ unbeaten League record dating back to April 2021, and whose last defeat in ANY domestic competition as they bid to secure a 12th successive title this weekend was in a Malaysia Cup Final in November 2021.
That 0-5 Frontale reverse seemed to produce a reaction “upstairs”. More investment in the players and facilities. With the dollars invested, domestic domination is simply expected. Progress to the lucrative AFC Champions League Elite Last 8 was a clear target.
Recruitment showed that.
Record scorer Bergson couldn’t conquer Asa, so let’s bring in Jairo. Jairo didn’t quite work, so let’s get Marcos Guilherme. Result? Enter 3 goals in 3 games.
Feroz is considered too lightweight; Jordi Amat past his prime and Shane Lowry is injury prone, so in come Raul Parra and Antonio Glauder and the wonderful (my adjective) Eddy Israfilov.
Arif Aiman is injured so in comes Yago. Nazmi Faiz deemed “not the answer”, Hector Hevel suspended/banned, so enter Nacho Mendez and Nene.
Syihan is Malaysa’s best ‘keeper by some distance – but he’s not big enough – enter Andoni Zubiaurre. It’s ruthless. Unpopular. But it is hard (if cruel) not to conclude that each new recruit has been an upgrade. And it’s been successful.
And the cost? I smiled when His Royal Highness TMJ put out a tweet before the Vissel Kobe AFC Elite match about JDT being “underdogs”. A little US$15 million team against the $ 60,000,000 budget of Kobe. But he wasn’t – technically - wrong. (although I suspect the JDT bonuses make that equation a little more even, but I’m not privy to what those bonuses are).
The “other” big thing I often think about as Johor prepare to take on the REALLY dollar-rich clubs of Saudi, UAE and Qatar in the Finals (where and when is still to be determined for geo-political reasons, of course) is how the State of Johor is now in general public discussion. Internationally.
I was born and brought up in England and knew a lot about Singapore. Not a lot about Malaysia. And certainly precious little about “Johor”. Sport has been, and is, a wonderful International marketing tool for Johor, which puts the dollar cost into perspective.
JDT are – and have for 10 years - just been thinking bigger than anyone in Malaysia. Buriram are similar. Sheer mathematics suggest that football alone can’t make the finances make sense, but because of the patronage of TMJ and the accompanying investment, there becomes a Financial argument to support.
Not just football, but Johor as a “destination” for industry, commerce and even tourism.
I really wish that a team of Malaysians really were good enough to get as far as the last 8 of the best competition in Asa. But they can’t. I’m from Liverpool, and bemoan, but still enjoy, the fact the the current heroes are Salah, van Dijk and Alisson and not Scouse born Callaghan, Smith, Thompson or Fowler.
JDT really did try “The Malaysian way”. It didn’t work.
“But Japan compete!”, I hear. Yes, Japan has 3 professional Leagues (60 teams) plus a semi-pro Japan league below that and Prefecture leagues feeding into that. They have a pyramid and an infrastructure so players from their NFDP equivalents have a good place to play if they don’t come good quickly.
Oh yes – Merseyside (population 500,000) has eight thriving professional or semi pro clubs than exist in Malaysia! Liverpool, Everton, Tranmere, Southport, Marine, Bootle, Prescot Cables, Lower Breck (plus at least nine others paying decent “bonuses” to players to play). And Liverpool county FA alone run FIVE men’s adult Saturday leagues (with multiple divisions), and TEN Sunday leagues (multiple divisions).
Malaysia (population 35,000,000) has 13 “professional” clubs including Government-backed department PDRM and Imigresen. Of the others, many are financially desperate and can’t pay debts.
Don’t blame TMJ or Johor for Malaysia having no real football infrastructure.
When they’re told they’re not liked, there are many reasons listed above about why they don’t care. If all goes to plan, Johor will be on the world stage in Jeddah in April. And where will the rest of the Malaysian game be?
# posted by Me @ 4:27 PM 
