Mediocre M-League reason for Harimau Malaya’s downfall

 

I’m still trying to figure out which was in a worse shape on that Tuesday night when Malaysia hosted Oman in the World Cup qualifier at the Bukit Jalil Stadium – the dreadful condition of the pitch, or the state of the national team.

I asked Asian Football Confederation General-Secretary Windsor John Paul about the condition of the pitch. Now, in this neck of the woods, there isn’t anyone better than Windsor – general coordinator of match venues at several Fifa World Cups – who can give you a fairly accurate assessment of the pitch.

“It wasn’t pretty, but it was playable,” said Windsor who went on to add that “in the scheme of things, the pitch was 85-90% fit, otherwise the (Fifa) match commissioner wouldn’t have allowed it.”

So, even with the stadium pitch barely making FIFA’s passing mark of fitness, it would seem that it still came out looking a lot prettier than the battered Malaysian side that looked like it had just stepped out of the ring with Iron Mike Tyson.

It may have just been an identical 2-0 defeat at home, the first being in Muscat a week ago, but the body blows dealt by Oman, left very telling bruises that are portends of a calamitous end to Malaysia’s World Cup journey.

Which is why I’m not particularly vexing over the poor management of the pitch, as that is actually the least of our problems right now.

For, the pitch can be fixed in a matter of six months to a year, if we engage a clever and experienced team of technical experts who know what they are doing, and a CEO who knows how to get the best out of them.

But Harimau Malaya?

Now that is the tricky part. For suspicion is that this team that was glued together with pieces from different parts of the world, could have already been all played out.

Only a one-eyed fan, or a football bimbo, will tell you otherwise.

But anyone with even an iota of football sense will know that Harimau Malaya has definitively come to the end of their football journey, culminating with Malaysia’s qualification to the recent Asian Cup finals as the pinnacle of their success.

Anything more, like making it to the Fifa 2026 World Cup finals, Malaysia will need to naturalise players like Kevin de Bruyne, Erling Haaland, Mohamed Salah, and their ilk.

And since that’s not going to happen, let’s not fool ourselves – as most Malaysians did after the 3-3 draw with South Korea in the Asian Cup in Qatar recently – into believing that there’s more to come from this depleted side.

Common football sense would dictate that even with the naturalised and heritage players, nothing spectacular is likely to happen, because all they have by way of enhancement of skills and competitive spirit, is the M-League, or in this context, the Mediocre League.

The Malaysian Super League (MSL), ostensibly the pride of Malaysian football, is a one-team league that’s dominated by JDT, who by virtue of its owner’s “cheque book football” philosophy, are virtually the national side.

But one can’t hold its owner, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, popularly known as TMJ, for this alarming imbalance of power in the MSL, because it’s perfectly legitimate for him to flaunt his cheque book to add whoever he can afford to his shopping cart.

While it’s quite evident that the Regent of Johor is wholly aligned to the European football club owner manual, the problem is other club owners who haven’t been able to match his financial clout, have consequently not been able to match JDT on the pitch as well.

And as JDT have been virtually invincible, winning the super league for 10 consecutive years with their sizeable share of heritage and naturalised players, the Southern Tigers however have been anything but dominating outside of their lair, like in the Asian Champions League.

On the contrary, JDT have been humbled by clubs from Japan, and South Korea to name a couple, with the latest humiliation manifested in their 5-0 defeat by Kawasaki Frontale in the ACL last November. For the record, Kawasaki is currently lying 13th in the J1 League.

This is not about JDT, this is about the standard of the M-League. If a team that’s lying 13th in the J1 League can consistently thrash the perennial champions of the MSL, it must only mean that our league is of a low standard, and unworthy of providing the competitive edge that the national team needs to match international standards.

Indonesia have woken up to the reality that since their Liga 1, their top tier professional league isn’t such a stage as well, they have put together a national side comprising naturalised and heritage players, who are playing in Europe and some parts of Asia, and not in their sub-standard domestic league.

And that explains why they are just one win away in their remaining two group matches against Iraq and the Philippines, for a place in the third round of the World Cup qualifiers, where the battles get bloodier.

With grassroots development virtually invisible, and the MSL which might as well stand for the Malaysian Sloppy League for its mess, the only sensible quick-fix solution for the FA of Malaysia, would be to have naturalised and heritage players playing in competitive leagues overseas.

And keep them wherever they are. Bring them back only for short spells of centralised training, to familiarise themselves with the national anthem, to learn about the diversity in culture, and get a taste of our famed nasi lemak, roti canai, curry laksa, and our char kuey teow.

Any longer than that, and they will start becoming Malaysians in mind and heart, and we will be going back to struggling to win a Sea Games gold medal, or an Asean Football Federation title.

Should FAM consider this suggestion of basing the bulk of their national side overseas, then they should also strongly contemplate identifying home-grown players and install them in competitive leagues abroad.

Never mind if they can get jobs only in the lower divisions, because it will still be a lot more competitive than our pathetic MSL, which is also beleaguered by clubs that struggle to pay salaries on time.

If it was possible, TMJ could get JDT to play as a guest team in an overseas league, say in Japan or South Korea, for starters. But with that being virtually impossible, Tunku Ismail may have to comfort himself with being the owner of a club that has to date – with the exception of the AFC Cup in 2015 – have just been “jaguh kampung” (village champions).

Which is why, I would strongly advise the latest squash sensation, S. Sivasangari to stay wherever she is, and not to set base in Malaysia until and after she has won the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic gold, or her world title.

If Sangari is here, even the Malaysian air that she breathes in, will make her recent Gillen Market’s London Classic gold, lull her into complacency and lose sight of the lofty targets.

Sadly, this is what Malaysia has become, the land that breeds mediocrity, that rewards run-of-the-mill performers, all of which happened after we had stopped being a thriving nursery for world beaters, a long time ago. - FMT

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