Is football more important than athletics? It is in Perak

 

The government thinks it knows what is best for sport. But let me remind you on what is truly best for all sport – fairness, sporting justice, and a level playing field.

At the ongoing Perak Open athletics championships, the four standard throwing events – hammer, shot put, discus and javelin – have again been thrown out of Stadium Perak to avoid damage to the football field.

Despite appeals by the Perak Athletics Association, the events had to be contested at the nearby rugby field at extra cost to the organisers, with hardly any spectators. This was a repeat of the scenario during the All-Comers event in March.

It was a big letdown at the Perak Open for the champion throwers who propped up Malaysian athletics that fared miserably in track events at the recent Sea Games in Hanoi.

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Although the All-Comers was the first of two meets for athletes to qualify for the Sea Games, the Ipoh City Council (DBI), the custodian of Stadium Perak, favoured football over athletics.

The last time throwing events were held at the stadium was at the Sukma Games in 2018.

Is football more important than athletics in a stadium that was built to accommodate throwing events?

It is in Perak – even if the state team, now in second-tier Malaysian football for the first time since 1990, is nothing to write about.

It is a questionable maintenance culture, a four-year-old episode that has exposed the government’s backward approach towards sport and angered the athletics community.

As national revulsion towards the poor upkeep of the National Stadium at Bukit Jalil intensifies, the Stadium Perak perplexity has widened the profound rottenness at the heart of our political and sporting systems.

Stadium Perak is an illustration of a sports facility whose managers appear only interested in football and have allowed athletics to suffer.

It is also absurd that cash-strapped running clubs are not allowed to utilise the track at the stadium for training even when it is not in use.

Stadiums with track and field facilities are usually designed as multi-purpose sites and are generally used for daily training as well as for staging national and district sports activities.

Since there are no proper tracks, athletes risk injury by training on bumpy grounds at the Polo Ground or Ipoh Padang while the government-built track and field courses are exclusive to sports schools.

In the past, sports programmes that were tied to the facilities uncovered promising athletes who went on to represent the state and country.

Today, those in the limelight are short-sighted local authorities, petty government officers and self-absorbed politicians whose disinterest towards the maintenance and management of sports facilities is an utter disgrace.

They appear only interested in football to achieve quick political recognition. That is why they invest so much in football to the detriment of other sports.

Then, there are those seeking political mileage who heap cash on football with their confounding justifications, not able to stand under their own umbrellas.

Financial rewards for football

Consider the RM10 million the government gave to the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) this year even as the young are playing in windswept, muddy grounds all over the country.

The financial rewards proposed for the well-paid national football team for qualifying for the Asian Cup could have been made available to athletes struggling financially to bring more glory to the nation.

It is truly ironic that sport is retarded in Perak, the home state of the youth and sports minister Ahmad Faizal Azumu who must take responsibility for denying youths the opportunity to discover and harness their talents in athletics.

Is it any wonder that people, who only know about politics, should so often turn out to be inadequate sports ministers?

The government must consistently invest heavily in sports as well as provide and upgrade facilities for every competitive sport if it wants to encourage sporting and academic excellence.

Many have come up with suggestions on how to change the situation but because they are not politicians, or close to those in power, their ideas are not heeded.

This is a government that does not take the blame for anything. We expect our leaders to foul up and are genuinely surprised if things go smoothly.- FMT

A hammer thrower in action at the rugby field near Stadium Perak during the All-Comers in March. (Perak Athletics Association pic)

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.