Mar 27

Nota: skrol ke bawah untuk edisi terjemahan dalam Bahasa Melayu

The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) may have been founded in the year of 1933 but some of its administrators are actually older than Rome. Decisions made were full of flips and flops. Remember the pronouncement to prohibit import players in the year 1999-2001? Then again in 2009 till God knows when?

The decaying tale of Kedah’s double treble may have been old. However the tale of inferior quality of Malaysian referees is definitely older. If one would compare the value in their annual salary to the ones in the English Premiere League’s, sure they’re inferior, then again so goes to the quality. But does that justify the value of the Malaysian referees, at all? To be inferior because of the salary? Or they’re just selling games? … Food for thought!

The ones that have been so called FIFA approved referees in Malaysia come to the matches with full of rage and temper. They brought together an army of emotion inside them whilst refereeing. How could an organization such as FAM let this happen? There’re referees who threw out vulgar remarks such as “Pukimak hang! .. main sudah laaa” to players whilst running of a match (in that case, I’ve been understood he’s a policeman). Oh .. talking about policeman being a referee, can you recall an incident happened in 2007 where a policeman being a referee at a local match in Johor who pulled out a red card, then a gun?

As early as opening of 2010, the referee at the Piala Emas Raja-Raja Finale made ridiculous blunder flying cards at the wrong player fuming up anger amongst the spectators. That itself led to a halt of the match for approximately 20 minutes. How about the recent match between Kedah’s reserve team with Shahzan Muda in Sungai Petani – the referee flew a red card to a player, accused for delaying the game at a throw in. The player was sent out, then being let in again. How on earth do you let a player in again after a red card?

Then how about the Azlan Ismail’s ban for 7 matches (and RM4K penalty) incident at the recent FA League match against ATM? The report against Azlan was told by all 3 field refereeing personnel hearing him saying “Lu punya pasal, gua kena gantung”. Now again, how the heck did the linesman ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FIELD could possibly hear those words in the noise of spectators? Seriously, if he could, he’s not human!

Then there’s the incident with Ahmad Sabri Ismail raging to strike the referee after the match with Negeri Sembilan for the many blunders he made. That very referee went back to report that he has been hit by Ahmad Sabri Ismail leaving a straight mark on his body. What sort of hit from a human body leaves a straight mark? I don’t know, maybe somebody can highlight me. A punch? A kick? An elbow? A head on? A knee? Does any of that leaves straight mark sorta bruise? Those claims made Ahmad Sabri Ismail pay RM8K penalty and banned for 12 matches!

The spectators are not blind after all, they saw what they saw, so goes to Ahmad Sabri Ismail. When Shukor Adan did a tackle on Fadly Baharom, the referee said it was because of the wet ground (it was raining) and not a tackle, but when Shafizan Hashim slides accidentally to the ball, it was decided a tackle and Shafizan earned a red card. That and many other incidents (hand ball, foul, etc) accumulated slowly fuming nearly everyone in the stadium.

The finale for that event was a gathering of spectators in front of the stadium’s façade demonstrating for the weak and fragile refereeing quality display. Wan Jamak claimed saying that referees know best on the field in an interview after that very match. But do they? After all, Wan Jamak’s team won that night with a late goal.

The standard of refereeing in Malaysia is definitely falling to no end. At this rate, all of the matches are close to void. Meaning they’re all meaningless, refereed by inferior personnel, with inferior reflexes, with inferior senses. They don’t see much, really. They prefer to see what they prefer to see. The match commissioner isn’t a help at all. They’re there for just being there. Most of them are old, practically rotten. They can’t see that far into the field, so their reports would always concur what’s been prepared by the referees. Natural isn’t it? Too old to do all the tedious task at such age.

Gentlemen, these referees and their actions are to be questioned. After all these cases, no action has been taken upon them by FAM. If they’re passing judgments on the players and coaches in the field, who would be passing judgments on them whilst at their task? After all they’re fragile human who make mistakes all the time. They’re not imported from Nirvana by FAM. They’re merely flesh and blood like most of us. Only they’re trained to see things and pass judgment on the field like most of us can (hence most of us know the regulatory well) . They’re not indispensable.

FAM needs a wakeup call from all of us Malaysian football lovers. It defeats the purpose to bring in the FIFA Fair Play flag into the stadium every starting of a match when it can hardly be fair at all.

Update: Thank you Mr. Loose Cannon (the ever famous Rizal Hashim) for featuring my article in his blog.

Another Update in Malay (thanx to Mr Ninja (nickname Hokage_Ke_7 in HKC)

Memang benar Persatuan Bola sepak Malaysia (FAM) telah ditubuhkan pada tahun 1933 tetapi kebanyakkan pentadbirnya lebih berusia dari tamadun kerajaan Rom. Kadang kala keputusan yang dibuat oleh mereka penuh dengan kontroversi dan jelik pada pandangan am. Ingatkah anda tentang larangan pemain import pada tahun 1999-2001? Seterusnya berulang kembali pada tahun 2009 hingga belum tahu period kesudahannya hingga ke hari ini.

Kisah gelaran kejuaraan Kedah memenangi treble mungkin sudah lama berlalu. Namun kisah mutu pengadilan di Malaysia jauh lebih lama untuk di perdebatkan oleh kita. Jika ada yang cuba membandingkan gaji tahunan pengadil Liga Perdana Inggeris dan Malaysia, sudah pasti bagai langit dan bumi, begitu jugalah penilaian terhadap kedua-dua kualiti pengadilan antara di Malaysia dan Eropah. Apakah disebabkan oleh gaji yang tidak sepadan membuatkan kualiti pengadilan di Malaysia tidak perlu bermutu? Apakah kualitinya begitu kerana mereka sudah cukup muak untuk mengadil? Layanan pengadilan mereka sebegitu disebabkan gaji yang sedikit ? Atau mereka sebenarnya hanya menjual permainan? … Sama-sama kita fikirkan!

Pengadil yang kononnya sudah di iktiraf oleh FIFA ini sebenarnya mengadili setiap perlawanan dengan emosi kemarahan semata-mata. Mereka mengadili setiap perlawanan dengan cara dan emosi tersendiri tanpa berfikiran waras terhadap kreditibili pengadilan itu sendiri. Bagaimana organisasi yang merupakan kerajaan bolasepak Malaysia seperti FAM membiarkan keadaan ini terjadi sejak musim bermusim ? Malah terdapat pengadil yang mengeluarkan kata-kata kesat dalam perlawanan seperti ‘“Pukimak hang!.. main sudah laaa” kepada pemain. (saya sedia maklum bahawa dia adalah seorang anggota Polis ) Oh bila bercakap berkenaan Polis, masihkah anda ingat insiden yang berlaku pada tahun 2007 lalu di mana seorang polis yang mengadili perlawanan bolasepak tempatan di Johor telah mengeluarkan kad merah, kemudian selaras pistol?

Pada awal pembukaan musim 2010, Pengadil perlawanan akhir Piala Emas Raja-Raja telah tersalah melayangkan kad kepada pemain yang menyebabkan berlakunya kemarahan luar biasa peminat pada malam tersebut. Aksi tersebut menyebabkan permainan terhenti selama 20 minit. Begitu jugalah apa yang terjadi dalam pengadilan perlawanan Pasukan Simpanan Kedah dengan Shahzan Muda di Sg Petani tempoh hari. Kad merah di layangkan kepada seorang pemain yang dikatakan cuba melengahkan permainan ketika pembalingan masuk bola ke padang. Apabila pemain berkenaan sudah keluar dari padang, beliau dibenarkan bermain semula oleh pengadil. Jelik bukan? Apabila kad merah sudah dilayangkan, bagaimana seorang pemain dapat dimasukkan semula setelah pemain terbabit diusir keluar padang?

Bagaimana pula dengan insiden yang telah berlaku kepada Azlan Ismail yang digantung 7 perlawanan beserta denda RM4000 ketika aksi bertemu ATM dalam perlawanan Piala FA yang lalu. Menurut laporan 3 pengadil (pengadil utama dan 2 linesman/pembantu pengadil) telah di beritahu bahawa Azlan ada mengatakan “Lu punya pasal, gua kena gantung “. Lihatlah bagaimana pembantu pengadil yang berada di tepi padang arah bertentangan mampu mendengar ucapan sedemikan di sebalik keriuhan suara penonton pada malam berkenaan. Sudah ternampak ketiga-tiga pengadil bersekongkol menghasilkan laporan yang sama demi menjatuhkan Azlan Ismail. Jika benar dia mendengar, SAH dia bukan spesis manusia biasa seperti kita.

Seterusnya adalah insiden Ahmad Sabri Ismail yang mengamuk menyerang pengadil sejurus selepas perlawanan dengan Negeri Sembilan, ramai yang mempertikaikan perbuatannya. Sungguh aneh apabila pengadil berkenaan telah melaporkan bahawa dia telah dipukul oleh Ahmad Sabri Ismail pada malam berkenaan dan meninggalkan bekas lebam lurus di bahagian rusuk? Saya tidak faham, mungkin ada sesiapa yang dapat jelaskan kepada saya. Pukulan bagaimana ianya dibuat? Tendangan? Siku? Guna Kepala? Lutut? Atau ada lagikah cara untuk menghasilkan kesan lebam yang berbentuk lurus dari mana-mana anggota manusia? Disebabkan insiden dan laporan palsu tersebut Ahmad Sabri Ismail turut di denda sebanyak RM8000 serta dilarang berada di bangku simpanan untuk 12 perlawanan.

Semua yang hadir malam itu bukannya buta, mereka dapat melihat sendiri apa sebenarnya yang berlaku. Ketika Shukor Adan melakukan terjahan keras kepada Fadly Baharum, pengadil mengatakan bahawa keadaan permukaan yang licin ketika itu (hujan) bukan kerana terjahan. Akan tetapi ketika Shafizan Hashim cuba mengelonsor mendapatkan bola dalam situasi berkenaan, pengadil mengatakan sebaliknya. Adakah hujan hanya turun pada bahagian tertentu padang? Adakah bila hujan tempat-tempat tertentu sahaja yang basah? Akhirnya kad merah dilayangkan tanpa usul periksa serta banyak lagi aksi lain yang perlu dipertikaikan (seperti bola terkena tangan, offside). Inilah yang menimbulkan kemarahan peminat yang hadir di stadium malam itu.

Akibat dari insiden berkenaan, penonton telah berkumpul di luar stadium sebaik tamat perlawanan bagi mengambarkan betapa lemah dan rapuhnya mutu pengadilan di Malaysia. Wan Jamak menyatakan pengadil adalah entiti yang paling mengetahui apa yang terjadi di dalam padang ketika diwawancara selepas itu. Tetapi adakah pernyataan beliau untuk menyatakan kebenaran? Adakah kerana pasukannya menang dan dapat menjaringkan gol?

Taraf mutu pengadilan di Malaysia semakin menerjah jatuh yang tiada kesudahannya. Pada ketika ini semua pengadilan boleh dikatakan sebagai tidak mencapai mutu dan kualiti yang di harapkan. Mutu pengadilan sudah jauh tersimpang dari apa yang diharapkan oleh semua peminat tempatan. Mereka lebih melihat realiti sebenar apa yang terjadi di depan mata. Komisyener perlawanan juga tidak banyak membantu dalam keadaan ini, menuruti segala apa yang dilaporkan oleh pengadil utama di tengah padang. Adakah ini kualiti sebenar yang berlaku sehinggalah ianya berpanjangan sebegitu rupa.

Tahukah anda? Segala tindak tanduk pengadil selama ini sering dipersoalkan. Selepas apa yang berlaku, FAM masih lagi berpeluk tubuh tanpa mengambil sebarang tindakan susulan kepada mana-mana pengadil langsung. Benarlah telahan saya bahawa pengadil di Malaysia hanya tangkap muat untuk mengadili perlawanan yang dianggap bertaraf professional. Kita memahami setiap manusia tidak terlepas dari melakukan kesilapan. Ini kerana kita sedia maklum pengadil ini bukannya Malaikat yang di ambil oleh FAM dari Syurga. Mereka juga manusia biasa seperti kita juga, cuma mereka dilatih untuk memililki kemahiran untuk menilai prestasi dan mengadili perlawanan bolasepak. Apa yang dipersoalkan hanyalah keputusan yang sering berlawanan dengan perkataan “adil” itu sendiri.

Sesungguhnya FAM memerlukan teguran dari pencinta bolasepak tempatan. Teguran dan kritikan sebegini semata-mata untuk memastikan tujuan dan asas bolasepak yang diperkenalkan oleh FIFA dapat dimartabatkan setiap kali bendera “FIFA Fair Play” dibawa masuk ke dalam padang.

Mar 24

I believe many of you readers/viewers are waiting for this entry. However, it is not as complete as it supposed to be. Some of the players may have not participated in the photography session due to certain reason; national duty for example.

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Nonetheless I’ll try my best to keep things posted.

The First Team

Note: I’ve updated the super league profile pictures :-)

The Reserve Team

Oh yes .. I haven’t filled in the captions in accordance to their names. If you think you could help me. Please do so :-)

Mar 16

I know I’m a nobody in within the state football environment, but in the wake of many unpleasant events recently, I felt called to dissect and examine the current severe situation in the state-wide football scene.

When victories are procured by the team, there’s definitely nothing seen as weakness for the state mothership of football, the KFA. However, the plummeting of team to such level such as what we’re currently experiencing, right about now, generally, it is seen as the players and coaches that are to be blamed. Moreover with the advancement of information technology; email, social networks (facebook, myspace, tagged, friendster, etc) and public forums, fans nationwide can now have direct access to mock, to insult and to taunt coaches and players without limit and boundary.

Prior to the acceptance of AY (Ahmad Yusuf) becoming the chief coach of Kedah, it is quite known that RMD (Radhi Mat Din) and AS (Ahmad Sabri) are good friends of his. Persuasion came strong as he is an A license holder. RMD and AS may put words to help AY in building his new profile in Kedah as how they’ve been working and experiencing together with Azraai Khor in the yesteryears.

Men can only plan and plot while high above the supreme power of Allah SWT shall decide how it ends. The aim of RMD and AS was diverted way beyond target. The flying little canary plunged to the ground, badly wounded. Naturally, the attention for responsibility is directed primarily at AY by fans nationwide.

In all honesty, AY should not be completely blamed. So goes to RMD, AS, and the players. Nonetheless, there’s somewhat like a loophole whereby KFA Council and KFA EXCO didn’t act speedy enough to mend and fix the situation.

The conferment of coaches and players is done by the KFA Council and the KFA EXCO in accordance to KFA’s rules and regulation. This means both KFA Council and KFA EXCO are without question COMPLETELY responsible to the whole Kedah football team.

Prior to the double treble years, very much the years under the observation and advisory of the late Dato’ Ahmad Basri Akil, a special committee being assembled called The Malaysian Football League Management Committee (Jawatankuasa Pengurusan Bolasepak Liga Malaysia) that is responsible for the performance and accomplishment in totality of the team. The committee was erected and put up with these 8 personnel:

  • 1 Assistant President
  • 3 Vice Presidents
  • 1 Honorary Secretary
  • 1 Honorary Treasurer
  • 1 Technical Director
  • 1 Team Manager

The KFA Honorary Secretary functions as the secretary for the committee. The committee shall meet after each match or at least every fortnight for post mortems regardless win, lose or draw. The team manager will be asked to produce extensive reports with the help from the panel of coaches. With such workflow, all parties – KFA EXCO and team management will always be vigilant and attentive to elements of team performance and welfare of players.

Here, when the team performance is at stake, taking into consideration of the extensive report presented by the team manager and hearing out to other committee members, a judgment shall be passed whether or not to rest, dismiss, fine or even end the contract of any of the team component regardless of coaches or players. Other sentences shall also be ruled should the committee see fit.

I cannot remember when was the last the committee has been called for a meet. Like I said earlier, I’m a nobody in the scene. Maybe I should not know, at all. One can always call KFA up and verify. Then again, if they don’t meet, or the committee has been purged, there’ll be a vacuum that shall split and separate both administration and team management of KFA. When such separation happens, there will be no understanding and harmony between the said parties so in the end, finger pointing and blaming sprees break out when declining of performance publicly witnessed at large.

I’m not attributing nor condemning any of the KFA administration or management personnel. However, things need to be done and it need to be done fast in order to get things on track again. Up till now, there’s not even a press statement being made to calm the situation. With demonstration being held twice back to back at the previous 2 matches, the uproar of football fans and spectators are like somewhat uncontrollable.

With the silent treatment from both KFA administration and management, it will kill the leftover fighting spirit that is still somewhere in the souls of both coaches and players. If it’s true that KFA has put out this check and balance practices that they used to perform, undeniably, the coaches and players shall prolong to be victims in such state of affairs. THEY WILL BE MOCKED, BE TAUNTED AND INSULT WITH BLASPHEMY REMARKS THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE SEASON!

Mar 13

Although there’re lots happening tonight, I’m out of words for this entry. Negeri Sembilan scored 1 to null. Kedah didn’t manage to suppress Negeri Sembilan to the last of all minutes of the game. Read my previous entry to validate the cause and hypothesis.

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There are so many faults that the referee turns his cheek away. Flying cards without proper logical cause. Those that he did woke the wraths within the many present in within the stadium vicinity.

It’s funny that how the referee kept his incompetency from the start to the concluding of the game. It is as though something bizarre gonna happen to the team and I’m very concerned they’re underestimating the gravity of the coming events. Kedah is definitely going through a journey that will twist the very fabric of football nature.

In all honesty, the game was fine and entertaining until it was broken by the ludicrous ego of the referee.

Mar 10

Last night, Kedah managed to only parallel its position with ATM in her very own home ground, Stadium Darulaman. Ever since the defeat with Selangor in Stadium Shah Alam at 0-4, the heat amongst fan has been building to wonder why Kedah has been boarding into such position.

The biggest question is … who to blame? Then again, should there be any blaming at all? The night ended with a so called answer I wasn’t really expecting – fans were demonstrating in the stadium façade area with a bunting that says “PECAT A. YUSUF, KFA NAK TUNGGU LAGI”.

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Truth to be told, the arrival of Ahmad Yusof to Kedah was greeted with an injury list by KFA. At that point in time, everyone was in the midst of expecting a “true striker” imported from somewhere. Out of all those enthusiasm, came Azlan Ismail and Zamri Chin to fill in that position. The players were then tested, everyone were somewhat delighted with the initial result.

Then there was a huge loud ‘pop’ heard in the Stadium Shah Alam on a friendly match. It was identified as a knee injury of Ahmad Fauzi Saari. Then a macro scale of investigation told it was actually an anterior cruciate ligament or better known as ACL amongst fellow athletes, a fearful sort of injury in the history of any professional athlete on the surface of earth. And yes, the normal way to identify this injury is a huge loud ‘pop’. It’ll need approximately 6 months to recover after an operation, of which, at this point, Khyril Muhymeen is doing his time. (It is feared that Saramsak Kram is also having this injury as I’m writing due to the sound heard at last night’s match)

The middle field was left with Shahrul Nizam Mustapa giving an endless headache to the coaches (of which at last night’s match, he suffered a groin injury). The selection process started right away scooping and filtering out kids from the Reserve (President) Team. Mohd Arfan came to the rescue then after (oh wait, now he’s serving some card time).

It’s a normal chemistry issue when inducing new players into a team of such number. However, it’s hard to deal with an on-off situation every now and then. The cards flying spree by referees and the injuries are not the sort of things which are plottable. And yes, we do have the-all-rounder sort of player which can play in any so-called position. The way I see coaches have these kinds of players in Malaysia is that, they’re used as scape goats. They’ll be in the substitute bench until needed. Never they’ll be a true position holder in a team.

Enough of coaches and players. Then how about managers? Administrators? Organizational policy? Fans?

Has the manager managed the team well at this moment?

Has the administrators been doing their best to assist in the running of the whole organizational programme?

Has the organizational policy being very friendly to their contracted players?

Have the fans done their part of supporting? Let it be victory or defeat?

Has anyone been screwing at all?