MY ARTICLE IN TODAYS STAR Letters Home > Opinion > Letters Published: Wednesday January 21, 2015 MYT 12:00:00 AM Updated: Wednesday January 21, 2015 MYT 9:14:48 AM High salaries but performances well below par FOOTBALL is the most popular spectator sport in Malaysia. The recent AFF Suzuki Cup finals between Malaysia and Thailand attracted a bumper crowd of nearly 90,000 die-hard fans turning up to support Harimau Malaya who lost 4-5 on aggregate. However, are top footballers worth their salary? I jumped off my chair when I read about former Johor player Norshahrul Idlan Talaha’s (better known as “Mat Yo”) salary demand for an increase from RM80,000 to RM150,000! Norshahrul was a pale shadow of himself in terms of performance in the AFF Suzuki Cup , M-League, FA Cup and the Malaysia Cup where he missed a penalty. Our top two strikers Norshahrul and Safee Sali were washouts and they are “jaguh kampung” in the local competitions. The only outstanding player was midfielder Safiq Rahim who scored six goals in the Suzuki Cup and won the outstanding player’s award. He is value for money. The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) which organises the M-League, FA Cup and Malaysia Cup maintains the ownership, management and distribution rights of the league by getting the right sponsorships and media coverage to popularise the three main competitions among local fans who are hungry for Malaysian football to achieve success at least at Asian level. This however looks like a far fetched dream with the mediocre standard of play. Allowing four foreign players will deprive local strikers’ development. All the allegations of match-fixing and hooliganism are also taking the shine out of the game. The Asian calibre players of the 70’s where Malaysia qualified for the 1972 Munich and 1980 Moscow Olympics and won the bronze medal in the 1973 Teheran Asian Games were Datuk Soh Chin Aun, Datuk M. Chandran, Datuk Santokh Singh, and the late Datuk R. Arumugam and Datuk Mokhtar Dahari. They were big names feared in Asian football. None of the current professional players can command the respect of those unsung heroes who played for the country and brought honour by beating the South Koreans and the Japanese national teams. The only thing they missed was professional league during their playing days. Now some of the M-League teams are struggling even to pay the salaries of their players and coaches. Even with salary caps some rich teams still pinch players from other teams by flouting the rules. The classic case is that of national player Gary Steven Robbat who was suspended for three months and fined RM50,000 for breach of contract. FAM as the guardian of football in the country must also focus their efforts on identifying, nurturing and developing players to at least Asian class and not remain “jaguh kampung” and demand astronomical salaries and yet dish out poor performances. *C. SATHASIVAM SITHERAVELLU* *Seremban*
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 01:56:26 +0000