The picture above describes the apparel sponsor for the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM).
Perhaps FAM could have learnt something from the advertisement in terms of having their shirts on and fear off when deciding to call off the Intercontinental Cup Football Tournament, apparently due to the H1N1 virus.
Was that the real reason why the tournament was called off? Let me walk the readers through some interesting factors and then you can deduce from there if the FAM reasons were valid.
1. If the concern was about the virus, how come there is no statement on the M-League despite there being two confirmed cases in the country so far?
2. Was the tournament to be held in Kuala Terengganu and moved to Kuala Lumpur after the Finance Committee Meeting held on April 11, prior to the Council Meeting.
3. At the Finance Committee Meeting, the sanction fee was raised from RM220,000, in accordance with the agreement signed in 2008, to RM250,000. Has this not contravened the agreement and were the Finance Committee members informed on the existence of the contract?
4. Why was it not the International Competitions Committee called upon to discuss the details of the tournament with the promoters?
5. Why is it that YBM Raja Ahmad Zainuddin appointed to chair the Organising Committee instead of letting the International Competition Committee to handle matters.
6. The pitch inspection was conducted in February 2009, and at that material time there was a concern with regards to the training pitches, so why was this not addressed for two months by the FAM, who incidentally conducted the inspection in the first place.
7. Wouldn’t it be easier to check some 200 odd players/official who would fly into this country for the tournament rather then risking our team travelling overseas now to play the friendly matches?
8. If the Health Ministry has told FAM that it is not safe to hold the tournament, why is it that the Health Ministry did not prevent FAM from sending its team to play overseas when it has done the same for some other sports, namely athletics.
