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.

Malaysian football has always been Like That

I am quite entertained to see Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) getting rammed by the throat, be it from running the game in the country right up to its poor secretariat staff (pity Saifuddin and Kelly, my ex-colleagues) after that 5-0 shame to UAE.

The rot has been there long time ago and coach B. Sathianathan is a brave man even though I am sure he has one leg already out of FAM's HQ in Kelana Jaya. He just did the right thing of calling a spade, a spade! What wrong did he do?

Tell me, if you are in his position with three fit players, wouldn't you get freaked out, knowing that even if 11 players were fit, media will still roast you...but three...

I like what the jovial Eric Samuel of Star said in his comment piece that everything will be discussed at the all powerful FAM Exco but knowing the members, things will be back to normal in no time, meaning this incident or happening will just continue even when I am 50 unless some sort of power could be clipped from the state affiliates. At the end of the day, the states need to play an important role but when you get half past six players from the states, what can the national coach do?

I think the only thing we can do is to work from down to the top. Let us not stray too far but look at Japan and Korea in terms of development. Why waste time sending our boys for trials or training at EPL clubs? Where is our R.O.I.? How many boys benefited and came back as half decent players?

I think if our players can even play in the J-League, K-League or even in Saudi Arabia or UAE's leagues, then its a major step in football for us. It is a know fact that MSL is crap, full stop. Why do our powers that be pretend its not by hauling up Sathia and even criticizing him in the media? Let's look at the AFC Cup for instance. This is a second tier tournament and til today, has any MSL side gone to the final? Why none of our state teams focus on this tournament, why just be contend with Malaysia Cup, FA Cup and the league title? From the attitude shown here, we know that state teams are the main culprits. When was the last time I heard a Malaysian players was coveted by foreign teams, why no one has moved abroad?

The signs are always there about the sad state of local football but we are of course oblivious to it until a crushing defeat hits our team. All in say is, football needs political will and a massive dose of 'unity' by getting the Chinese and Indians back in the game. Without them, our team will continue this downward spiral. Mark my words, one race teams never succeed!

Sathia is Right to Be Pissed with Losers

I don't blame national coach B. Sathianathan if he quits officially after the 5-0 thrashing by United Arab Emirates (UAE), I mean who could blame him for coaching a crappy team like Malaysia. Opps, that you and me's national team.

Yea, you read it right. He said prior to the game, only three players are fully fit. You have to be kidding me when you read this kind of statements in the papers. I mean, where is the professionalism in our players, why can't they maintain their own training schedule, why must they be reminded and spoon fed by the coach? Aren't we professional or in a professional-era?

However, as many of us fans know, Malaysian football is in denial. Claims of professionalism but amateur in attitude and everything. As you know, our players are mainly "gaya lebih" with their Nike outfits, MP3s and gelled up hair. I have said it before and I am saying it again, their boots have more talent than the players.

In my AFC days, I visited UAE on work assignment for the AFC U-17 tournament and I was posted in Abu Dhabi for two weeks and my venue was the Al Wahda Stadium which is the home club of their best player back then and now, Ismail Mattar. (He played in that 5-0 match)

One thing I noticed is the passion of the club officials and the squad of course. They have dedicated staff to run the club, from youth until the senior team. Yes, UAE clubs have more money than our state teams but that shouldn't be an excuse for our players lack of initiative and professionalism.

What can't we have our own Ismail Mattar, who was once coveted by teams from Europe and even Brazil? Heck, Al Ain club from UAE also won the first AFC Champions League and UAE's citizen compared to us, is relatively small as you would find more foreigners from Indians (from Kerala mainly), Pakistanis and Filipinos and the Mat Salleh in Dubai, Abu Dhabi areas among the seven (I think) Emirates.

Bit The Dust in Semis

I played in my company's sports club badminton tournament and sadly I lost in the semis. On the hindsight I would say that was good a result because I haven't played in a long time and put on damn a lot of weight.

But the defeat hurts as we lost a match we could win because of numerous unforced errors, simple shots like hitting out, to the net, half court smashes going astray etc. Not taking away any credit from my opponents but its one of those days that you feel, Shit, I could have done better!

Anyway, my new year resolution is to play regular badminton with my regular group. If I could do that, regain my old form and hopefully, my size, then I guess you guys out there better watch out!

Taxis at KL Tower - where the hell are they?

I went for the TV9 Rebirth event on an email invite and I must say the event was ok and the food was ok, too.

It was going back to office that irritated me as to my own discovery, Malaysia's own taxi service sucks and is very rotten to the core. Maybe the Tourism Ministry might do their own checking on the service provided at the KL Tower.

Imagine it was raining and no taxi was in sight to head home. Imagine again, what an embarrassment when tourists asked for taxi and none was in sight, what a bloody shame, the main KL tourist spot where all the tourists head to.. no taxi because of rain.

But then again, that's Malaysia for you. When opportunity is presented, they go running. When no opportunity, they will complain and bitch to the powers-that-be.

Chong Wei is Malaysian badminton and Malaysian badminton is Chong Wei

The Denmark Open confirms something which rankles my mind that Malaysia is just Lee Chong Wei in badminton and vice versa.

My predictions also that Koo Kien Kiet-Tan Boon Heong are slowly moving in a free fall direction couldn’t be further than the truth. After a Macau Open win in a rather weak field the Danish Open once again displayed that the same pair we saw last year is yet to be found.

We don’t know why then can lose to a scratch pair, well maybe, the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) can come up with a better answer.

Oh, back to Chong Wei, no Chong Wei means no semi finalist (minimum benchmark) in any Super League tournament. Look at Hafiz Hashim, not good enough at the international level but better than most back-up players in the country.

This is something BAM must address, a dearth of decent singles players and the continued dismissal form of Kien Keat and Boon Heong. At the rate we are going, we can only watch Chong Wei playing for Malaysia’s glory while the rest are early round casualties.