Malaysian football

MM Online - Johor prince: ‘Tan Sri’ used MARA funds for football team (extracts):

sweetie ta'mahu sokong liao, jadi Tan Sri cari jalan lain, wakakaka 

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 12 ― An unnamed person with the title of “Tan Sri” forced MARA and its entities to sponsor the Kelantan Red Warriors football team, said the Johor crown prince today.

Challenging the “Tan Sri” to explain the decision, Tunku Ismail Tunku Ibrahim also appended photographs of documents showing a RM500,000 sponsorship by University of Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) and an additional RM200,000 by Pelaburan MARA.

UniKL is wholly owned by the federal agency.

“When the nation's economy is weak and when there are fiscal cuts here and there, you still proceeded to use the funds meant for Malaysians to fund The Red Warriors as the chairman of Mara,” he said in a Facebook posting today.

Tunku Ismail did not specifically name the individual, but the current MARA chairman is Tan Sri Annuar Musa, who is also a former president of the Kelantan Football Association.

The prince then pointed out that the move came at a time when UniKL cut its scholarships from RM2 billion to RM1.3 billion in 2016.

explain!

where's that Aziz Nazri when you need him?  

RM2 billion minus RM1.3 billion = RM700 million, which may explain why UniKL was still able to donate RM500,000 to FA Kelantan, and f**k those applicants for scholarship.

Hmmm, any cut in MARA's allocation?

MM Online - Mara chief says not entertaining Johor crown prince’s allegation (extracts):

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 12 ― Tan Sri Annuar Musa said he will not respond to Johor crown prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim's demand for him to explain why Mara was made to sponsor the Kelantan football team.

The former Kelantan Football Association president also insisted that he did not have any disagreements with the Johor royal and was not seeking to be involved in personal exchanges with Tunku Ismail.

“I don't owe an explanation to him. If I were to answer, he would be embarrassed again like the pendrive issue; I don't want to embarrass him again” ...

Annuar, it's not a matter of Tunku Ismail being the TMJ or a member of the Johor royalty or an ordinary citizen.

The problem is: you CAN'T provide an explanation! Wakakaka.

Football has always stirred the fire in our nation's wannabe-Pele, and quite frankly, the royalty has not been innocent as well.

A large number of VIPs, either royalty or politicians, desire to be the state's or nation's FA President, believing in or rather, wakakaka, fantasizing on what and how he do to make his team the best in Malaysia or the region or the world. 

There is undeniably a sincere passion by most Malaysians in the game but some of these VIPs did more to interfere and hamper the progress of the team and game than to help, wakakaka.

Once I was my department's team manager and in a department's inter-branch game, saw that my branch manager was not playing well, so I called him out with the intent to replace him with another player.

But, wakakaka, wannabe-Diego ignored me despite the referee stopping the game and pointing out to him the team manager (moi, wakakaka) had the right to change players during the match. Wannabe-Diego just ignored the referee who was also in the same branch, wakakaka. Of course I copped it sweet from the branch manager, one Mr Soon, after the game which my side lost, wakakaka.

FIFA  World Cup is the only tournament which beats Olympic Games in popularity 

Once upon a time Malaya was at the top of regional football during TAR's days. We were only worried about the Burmese (trained by East Germans) and South Koreans (trained by West Germans), wakakaka.

Tunku was definitely an ardent fan of football and was the brains behind the Merdeka tournament which became the model for many nations in Asia. But like our football, the Merdeka tournament is no longer the premier football game for the region.

On the other side of the coin, our players can do with some discipline and semangat. Malaysian players tend to 'give up' too easily and worse, show merajuk-ish poor sportsmanship.

They need to emulate the exemplary attitudes of the South Koreans and Japanese sportspeople which have demonstrated sterling discipline and never-say-die sportsmanship.

As the Koreans would say to moral-boost themselves, "Fighting" while raising a clenched fist to indicate their resolve, which all mean they will fight until they die.

Maybe it may be a good idea for us Malaysians and Malaysian sportspeople to adopt the motto of the Army Rangers of Agi Idup Agi Ngelaban.

Literally translated from Iban, it says "Still alive, still fight" which in more figurative translation would be:

Whilst there is life, there is fight or As long as I live, I shall fight!

In the Iban language the motto has a nice ring to it and is uniquely Malaysian.

But well-meaning VIPs should come down to the cold realization that, yes, they can sponsor the team financially, but they must leave the training of players to the professional coaches and managers and NOT interfere.