Over the past 20 years, state governments in Malaysia have argued that it is expensive and wasteful to run a professional football club.
To get around it, the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and the Malaysia Football League (MFL) embarked on a privatisation campaign to turn football into a lucrative commercial property worth investing in.
Some fans call it the franchise policy, and I’ve always hated its capitalistic, cartel-like overtones. But it is the best way forward.
So, in support of such a progressive initiative, I should have been delighted when I heard someone suggesting that UiTM FC should continue to be funded by the university.
But I’m not. I’m filled with an awful sadness, a sense that something truly terrible is about to happen.
The problem is, for many years, the football club has been dependent on the funds from the Higher Education Ministry, via the sports excellence programme, and the university itself.
This will no longer be the case. As of this season, financial support from both institutions has, and will significantly diminish. For rightful reasons as well.
Reasons very similar to why state governments are slowly moving away from financing their state professional football teams – rationalisation of resources and appropriating those funds on initiatives that encourage greater public participation.
The ministry is said to spend approximately RM1 million on UiTM FC. The university tops that amount with another RM3-RM4 million. Now, you can forget the notion of winning anything important or a promotion, because when compared to the expenditure of other clubs per season, that kind of spending is pretty much a joke.
This huge chunk of money, though, is better spent on managing a comprehensive university football league where it provides opportunities for late bloomers to still pursue their career in football, while getting themselves a college or university education.
There is no point for UiTM FC to turn towards the ministry for help, because the ministry is now more calculated and mindful of their spending. Nor can UiTM FC rely on the university completely. It is illustrious to be the only university in the country to have a team competing in the MFL, but that is obviously not the business of a university.
The university should not be spending millions of ringgit, funds allocated by the ministry, on such non-academic programmes.
So, as usual, it falls on me to come up with a plan. And thankfully, I have one.
You may have read recently that I successfully sold Perak FC to a public-listed company and restored the club from months of financial troubles. This is all very worthy, and the state will probably, one day, give me a Datukship!
But this is what UiTM FC must aspire to achieve, as well.
Rather than wait for the club to fall into financial ruin, and hope for the ministry or the university to bail it out, the management should come up with an investment prospectus that is capable of encouraging the rich to become richer through the acquisition of the club and turning it into a proper commercial enterprise.
The commercial opportunity is vast. We are talking about access to a state-funded tertiary institution with branches nationwide, an estimated population of 300,000 students per year, not including the teaching and administrative staff, and the hundreds of thousands of alumni members, dating as far back as the 60s.
And most importantly, unlike in most state football clubs, you will be dealing with a potential fan base that is a lot brighter, less murderous, more forgiving, and with greater purchasing power.
This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Twentytwo13.
