Today, we pay scant attention the Malaysia Cup and other local competitions. We have all been converted to the English Premier League, ardent devotees of a football religion practised thousands of miles away.
The fault is in our changing perpectives and values and misguided social dogmas which have strayed drastically off the straight and narrow of tolerance and acceptance which once made Malaysian football great. There is no need for insightful soul-searching or recriminations.
The problem, if we only choose to see it with 2020 vision, is in our changing attitudes. The cloud over the game is that of bigotry and hypocrsiy, the refusal to accept the reality of the situation.
There can be no quotas in sports. Only the best will do and most nations recognise this immutable fact. Malaysian soccer lost its lustre two decades ago and we are still trying to fool ourselves that we can polish dull granite into diamonds.
The game is in a state of chaos governed by an association leading by disassociation. The inertia is suffocating. The states are doing their own thing, which ususally is nothing. The clubs are doing their own thing, which usually is nothing. And the schools are doing their own thing, which is, again,, nothing. All that nothing is telling on the game.
