It’s time to tackle our football woes

The relevant parties must figure out a way to turn a national pastime into something that can be a source of national pride.

It hasn’t been a good month for Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin. Following an allegation that as much as RM100 million in youth development funds was embezzled by an officer in his ministry, he has had to be on the defensive. To his credit, he has launched a ministry-wide investigation and is looking into closing the loopholes allegedly used by the officer, though it’s unlikely that this will deter those calling for him to step down or at least step aside for the duration of the investigation.

As if he isn’t in enough trouble already, he recently had to make a rather insensitive remark about our national footballers. Noting their low international standing, he said they lacked quality. This prompted a coldly sarcastic, but nevertheless impassioned, statement from the Crown Prince of Johor, Tunku Ibrahim bin Sultan Ismail, fondly known as TMJ. The prince, who is patron of the Johor Southern Tigers, looks upon his team with a fatherly pride, and it is understandable that he would take such a proclamation from Khairy negatively.

TMJ savaged KJ, placing the blame for the country’s noticeable lack of glory in the footballing arena on the shoulders of “a few of our ministers and people in FAM.” He accused them of not taking responsibility for the shameful state of affairs and knowing only how to point fingers. Calling on FAM, Khairy’s ministry and the clubs to work together to do what would be good for national football, he told executives who “only know how to wear a suit” to step down if they were not assets to the struggle.

TMJ was soon joined by national team striker Safee Sali, who called on the authorities to take responsibility for their role in raising the standard of national football instead of blaming the players. Both brought up the RM100 million issue in their statements, demonstrating what the athletes and their patrons feel about the loss of so much money that could have gone to advancing national football.

TMJ and Safee are absolutely right in that the government plays a huge role in advancing national sports and that the enterprise is doomed to fail if there’s no collaboration among all relevant parties.

The clubs are struggling to tread water in a world full of advanced tactics and training, state of the art facilities, and big name transfers. Some, like Kelantan’s Red Warriors, have looked to unorthodox sponsorships, while TMJ’s Southern Tigers are a whole new breed of their own.

Without the government aggressively promoting the sport, encouraging youth programmes to feed exciting new talent into the clubs, sponsors are merely throwing money at an unsustainable product. Furthermore, a football club’s brand is determined by the closeness of the club to its community. Without engaging the community, without convincing kids that they too can be hometown heroes, football will always remain more of a national pastime than something that could be a source of national pride.

TMJ is right. It is time to take responsibility. The uplift of our national sports and sportspeople must become a national endeavour supported by the government and the regulating bodies or we will not see the glory of Ola Bola ever recreated.

There is nothing to be gained from the blame game. Only an honest discussion between all relevant parties can yield a way forward, and only if everyone at the table is aware that the old way does not work.

There are many who dream of pursuing sports as a career. It’s nothing more than a dream because there’s no system and community in place, and no real career path to follow. Even now, we hear stories of our athletes struggling to make ends meet, or even to make it to training. That should not have to be the case.