AFC's West Asian tussle

This is really interesting times in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Stories of how Mohamed bin Hammam iron fisted reign is slowly but surely coming to an end is a welcome relief.

As a former staff and an Asian football observer and follower, I think karma has a way of showing up to those who do bad unto others. This was a person who was hell bent of getting rid most of the Malaysian staff. Run a check now on people who worked under Dato' Peter Velappan's regime and you will see who many is left now.

Forcing Malaysian staff to go on contract, threatning to move AFC away from KL and treating his fellow West Asians as if they are football Gods in Asia when none of them even reach the quarter finals of a World Cup is some of the things he has done when he took over. The one that takes the cake is asking Malaysians to go for English classes...

Anyhow, my vote is for Sheikh Salman or whoever who goes against Hamamm. My hope for Sheikh Salman to treat all corners of Asia the same and not to always give priority to the West Asian Arab countries.

Whispers were going around that he was out to oust Dr Chung Mong-jung when he took over as AFC chief back then as from a FIFA standpoint, Hamamm is ranked lower in FIFA. So, try and amend the statutes to suit his ambitions...

Anyway, all the best Sheikh Salman and hope Asia makes an informed decision!

BJSS and BPSS shouldn't play in the Junior League

On Saturday, 2 May, I read my friend Aftar's article in The Star about Bukit Jalil Sports School's going on a local holiday if they do the double in the Junior Hockey League.

The way the coach S. Prakash was quoted as saying, "The pressure is definitely on my boys to live up to their status as the number one team in the junior league."

Please, please lar... this the best team in the country for junior hockey, these boys eat, drink and sleep hockey. Not winning the title would be injustice to the very foundation of this school, read, Sports School or Sekolah Sukan if English is challenging for one to understand.

I also wonder why do they need to compete in the junior league. It is not a level playing field when you consider how bad sports is treated in our national school with academic qualification the utmost priority and sports being treated like a leper in most schools. Is it any wonder why we are still backwards in sports considering the millions we get and the pampering our athletes get?

To be a BJSS coach, even a seasoned player without a coaching cert can coach them to glory so I wonder why this Prakash guy was quoted as he sounded like "Wow, this league is so tough and my players are like achieving success based on my coaching ability versus the more tougher and stronger teams playing us"!

Heard enough of this crap and is it a wonder why we lag far behind in the world of hockey. In fact, just disband BJSS and BPSS for the junior league as they serve no purpose competing other than to dishearten and kill the morale of younger players. The fact that these two teams comprises of only one race is really not pleasing to all but let's leave this to another day.