Malaysian football and hockey have served up a dog’s dinner.
Both the FA of Malaysia and the Malaysian Hockey Confederation are doing a clog dance; an awkward, uninspired mess littered with misplaced statements.
Woeful:
• Struggling to assemble the national football team for the Jakarta Asian Games less than three weeks away.
It is treasonous that players and certain officials don’t put country before club.
Didn’t someone tell the sports minister that neither his ministry nor the state sports executive councils can do anything to resolve the club first stance?
His meddling could be viewed as political interference.
Miserable:
• The national hockey team’s playing tour of Perth can be deemed a conditioning boo-boo.
• It’s winter there and the weather forecast this week is between nine and 18 degrees Celcius.
• During the Asian Games, Jakarta will experience searing heat between 30 and 33 degrees Celcius.
• Did you know that Perth is the hometown of national hockey technical director Terry Walsh?
Then there’s the Tun Abdul Razak Cup, once hockey’s premier tournament.
The interstate tournament, now changed to Oct 26-Nov 3 after the ‘Deepavali blunder’, has been reduced to a third-tier event.
Twenty-six national players will not feature in the meet as they will be in Oman for the Asian Champions Trophy from Oct 18-28.
It appears no real thought has gone into the Tun Abdul Razak Cup because at first it embarrassingly coincided with Deepavali.
It is foolishness that the structure of the football and hockey bodies continues to remain institutionally dysfunctional.
Annoying isn’t it?
