There seems to be a general consensus that privately-run businesses are better than associations or state-run organisations.
We were quick to accept the privatisation of the football league and hated the idea of state-owned football associations, thinking that they are run by people who are incapable of getting a proper role within the state administration. Then, why was there so much brouhaha about plans to privatise the national football team?
The proposed privatisation of the national football team seems to worry a lot of fans. Many appeared uneasy with the presumed notion that the Crown Prince of Johor, Tunku Ismail Ibrahim, who is the owner of Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT), would manage the national football team. Yes, of course, we are talking about the same bunch of fans who loathe JDT, even though they are the most accomplished, competent, and well-organised football club in the country.
Based on the Opta Power Ranking reports, JDT is currently positioned as the 8th best football club in Asia, and the best in Southeast Asia.
Look, I get the idea and perfectly understand why we all continue giving our unwavering support and love to a preposterously managed state football club. It is all because we feel a sense of association and belonging to the state where we were born.
For me, I’m just fortunate to be born in Johor. What I genuinely don’t understand is why there is so much “resentment” towards Tunku Ismail, so much so that we deny the general fact that privatisation leads to better performance, good governance, and greater commercial interest, which in this discussion, is directed specifically towards the national football team.
To be fair, privatisation alone does not guarantee commercial gains, and we’ve seen that ourselves with The Red Warriors Kelantan and Kedah Darul Aman Football Club.
The success of any privatisation exercise basically depends on two major factors. Firstly, the regulatory framework, which in turn depends on the institutional and political environment. In such cases where the regulatory system is not functioning effectively, and football clubs face high levels of corruption and weak standards of financial discipline, private ownership cannot, on its own, improve club performance. And this is where the next factor plays a pivotal role – the characteristics of the new owner(s).
While the introduction of “external” owners would likely lead to an improvement in most measures of commercial performance, we have yet to see any evidence that team performance improves when they are privatised to insiders – either state personnel or former footballers. This is probably because insiders have exploited their control to resist the changes in behaviours required to make the team competitive in the market environment, rather than promote them.
I suspect that the apprehension with privatisation, and the Crown Prince of Johor presumably being the so-called chief executive officer of the national football team, is that the team would largely comprise heritage or naturalised players, as seen with the JDT team competing in the first round of the Asian Champions League.
So what? Having an all “foreign” team with the likelihood of better performance does not necessarily mean that we will abandon our home-grown or grassroots programmes. JDT may only have one home-grown player lined up against Shanghai Port FC on Sept 18, but they are still very passionate about their youth development programmes, which saw them dominate the recent Malaysia Schools Sports Council football tournament.
Being competitive today with “foreign” players and being competitive later with home-grown players looks very good. But the trouble is, it’ll break the bank, hence the need for workings that would encourage greater private investment. This is important.
Going to the grave with the hope of a brighter future for our football is fine. Going to the grave witnessing your national football team losing, embarrassed, and disappointed – I cannot think of anything so heartbreakingly sad as that.
The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Twentytwo13.
