WHAT A SHAM BWF

The introduction of badminton’s controversial ‘skirt rule’ has been postponed by a month to grant female shuttlers more time to adapt to the dress code, the game’s governing body said.

The new Badminton World Federation (BWF) code, which requires all female players to wear skirts or dresses in major tournaments in order to “to ensure attractive presentation of badminton” will now be implemented on June 1.

The BWF will talks with the players, some of whom have objected to the principle of making skirts compulsory, saying it hampered their movement on court and made them uncomfortable.

“Sometimes it is necessary to make rules to get a consistent implementation,” BWF deputy president Paisan Rangsikitpho said in a statement.

“We are however always willing to listen to the players, which is why we have decided to delay the implementation date ... to be able to advise and have a dialogue with the players on the implementation guidelines.”

The rule, which has been criticised by female shuttlers in China, Indonesia and India, allows players to continue to wear shorts provided they are was underneath a skirt.

With the current extension, the rule will now come into implementation in Singapore Open Super Series after the BWF’s annual general meeting in Qingdao, China on May 28.

LEAVING MALAYSIA

It is learnt that concentrated efforts are underway by certain countries to move the headquarters of Badminton Asia out of Kuala Lumpur.

And the destination is believed to be South Korea as one of it's Municipal Councils has agreed to fund the BAC office there.

Well maybe it's time that the BWF is also sent packing as they only offer jobs to non Malaysians if late, a policy adopted by AFC in discrimination against Malaysians.

One word answer - we do not need you here.

WHITHER NSC

So Misbun Sidek has been offered a new deal by BAM and it awaits the decision of the former coach of Lee Chong Wei.

Now what about Misbun's contract with the NSC?

A little bird says that Misbun had two contracts, 15k each from NSC and BAM.

The NSC DG has been very vocal about Misbun and one wonders if the contract with NSC is an automatic renewal as he is silent on that issue.

Since it's public funds, and as reveal by Haresh Deol that millions came from sin tax funding via Sports Toto, which is haram to many, let's have some clear picture if NSC has renewed their contract with Misbun.

As for Misbun coaching his son and getting paid for it now, why not offer the same deal to Zulkifli, the father of Zulfadli.

Why the double standards BAM?

TOP DOG CAUGHT?

Seems someone, that a few mainstream media imply is a top gun at the Sports Ministry was caught for khalwat at Penang.

Hope the Minister can clarify the issue and clear the air if it's a gross misrepresentation of facts.

Let's wait and see if he is someone who walks the talk.... Easy to lambast others right but what when one of your own leta you down?

Cardiff City's Malaysian backers to 'stick by club'

Chief executive Gethin Jenkins has promised Cardiff's Malaysian regime will not abandon the club if they fail to win promotion to the Premier League.

The consortium, led by millionaire Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun, has invested millions in the hope of the Bluebirds reaching the top flight.

"They will stick by the club, that is the short answer," Jenkins insisted.

The Malaysian consortium took over the Championship club following their play-off final disappointment in May 2010.

Cardiff suffered heartbreak at the end of the 2009-10 season as they were beaten 3-2 by Blackpool despite twice taking the lead at Wembley.

The backers helped stabilise the club's finances and staved off a winding-up order after HM Revenue and Customs took Cardiff, who had estimated debts of £15m-£30m, to the High Court regarding a £1.9m debt

Property magnate Vincent Tan, who is worth a reported £800m and owns around 30% of the club's shares, and chairman Dato Chan Tien, known as TG, are the main players in Cardiff's new regime.

They have helped manager Dave Jones build what is widely considered as the best playing squad in the Championship at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Craig Bellamy, Seyi Olofinjana, Jason Koumas and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas bolstered a squad that already included Jay Bothroyd, Michael Chopra, Peter Whittingham and Stephen McPhail.

 

While Cardiff are still in the promotion hunt for the third successive season, Jones's men have stuttered to fourth in the table after four games without a win.

"If you look at their track record, they stood by us after the play-offs," added Jenkins, mindful of the £90m financial jackpot that goes with promotion to the Premier League.

"And they are committed to carrying on with the club. They want us to grow into a strong, sustainable operation and they are fully supportive of doing that development."

Cardiff's Malaysian investors were lured to south Wales because of the possibilities of helping a club with potential into one of the most watched leagues in the world.

"They recognised that they have been able to support a club that was in trouble," Jenkins commented.

"And whatever goes on, we should fully recognise the commitment and support the Malaysians gave us last June and where the club was.

"If you spend any time in Malaysia or the Far East then football is phenomenally big - especially the Premier League as it gets more coverage in Asia than in the UK, believe or not.

"So there are a lot of opportunities for developing football in Asia and Vincent Tan's sons are passionate about football and TG's son has signed a professional contract with team in Malaysia.

"They are football fans but very, very successful businessmen and saw a club that needed help and were there to provide it.

"If the Malaysians hadn't had come in we would have had to look seriously at administration but we didn't do that."

And Cardiff chief Jenkins was adamant that Jones, the Championship's longest serving manager of almost six years, is under no ultimatum to get the team promoted or face the sack.

But he did admit that the Bluebirds would have a "fundamental review" at the end of the 2010-11 campaign.

When asked if there is an ultimatum for Jones to win promotion, Jenkins replied: "No.

"But at the end of the season we will sit down and have a fundamental review whether we get promoted or not and Dave will be fully involved in that.

"We are still going for play-offs and automatic promotion and you won't expect to lose the manager then. But I'm optimistic that we will get promoted."

TALKING COCK

From time to time I present awards to sports personalities for the ridicolous manner in which they try to justify "truth" in accordance with their perception of understanding the true essence of the phrase. In other words - menegakkan benang yang basah.

The award forthe month will sure go to those quoted in The Malay Mail story published in March 30 as it is clear that they really do not understand the issue at hand and are merely puppeting what is told, or what they prceive to be the truth.

Political seems to be the key word, and perhaps Ibrahim was not in the country when the political tsunami swept on March 8, 2008. Mind you I was there and even the government of the day understands the situation and have changed in a lot of matters.

Read on the excuses as I will expose what a tennis player had to say about her exclusion from major events over the past few months.

The Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia (LTAM) want outsiders to stay out of their affairs.

"Some of their comments are biased," said LTAM executive secretary Ibrahim Yusof Abu Bakar.

LTAM were barracked for ‘sidelining' national players for the WTA Malaysian Open. Malaysia were offered four wild cards.

However LTAM only used two — one was given to S. Theiviya, 17, and the other to Vietnam's Huynh Phuong, as part of a reciprocal arrangement with their Vietnamese counterparts.

"Our president, Tan Sri Abdul Razak Latiff, has already responded to the accusations," added Ibrahim.

National juniors coach Deen Heshaam said the "politicking" was not helping their cause, which is to expose the youngsters.

He defended LTAM's decision to send only Theiviya to the Malaysian Open.

"Some of the older players have been around for several years now. Yet they've been on the losing end," said Heesham.

According to him the junior players are showing a lot of potential and it is only fair they be given priority.

Heshaam, who has been with the juniors for over a year now, could not have chosen a better time to make the statement as the younger players showed a lot of promise during the national championships at the Jalan Duta complex yesterday.

Unseeded Ahmed Deedat Abdul Razak, 15, sent second seed Abd Hazli Zainuddin and third seed Muhammad Ashaari Zainal crashing out in early rounds.

However, he could not overcome national No 1 Si Yew Ming in the final yesterday despite forcing a tie-breaker in both sets. He lost 7-6, 7-6.

In the women's category, Choo Lyn Yuen, 15, emerged victorious as top seed Jawairiah Noordin had to retire after the first set. Lyn Yuen won the first set 6-3.

RTM TO COUGH UP RM6 MILLION

The saga of the telecast rights, over terresterial television, for the M-League is expected to come to an end soon with RTM paying a whopping RM6 million to the compny that bought the marketing rights for the M-League from the Football Association of Malaysia.

Let us be clear from the begining that the marketing company/right holders are within their jurisdiction on just how much to ask for as they would have penciled in the figure when they tabled their bid to the FAM at the end of last year.

What we re trying to do is provide an explanation with regards to the whole saga that dragged on for three months, when it could have been easily resolved if the parties had sat down and reasoned with each other.

The figure of RM6 million was the bone of contention as RTM had asked for a reduction to RM4 million as their previous agreements with MSL Sdn Bhd, prior to the 2008-2010 contractual season. But the right holders would have none of it and insisted that RTM had to pay RM6 million per eason if they wanted to screen the matches.

But despite paying such an hefty sum, it does not gurantee RTM the exclusivity as the rights holder itself is a cable TV station, and they can show any matches they opt to. This clause, differentiating cable and terresterial TV was included in the broadcasting agreement from 2008.

Now lets rewind back to when a cable TV station actually made a bid to show live matches on their station. This was in 2008 and there were two offers made, by a newly set-up Sports TV network operator in Malaysia, through the good offices of OCM, as well as a private TV station in Singapore.  

The figure that the Malaysian TV was told was RM2 million per season and that RTM had the first pick of matches. And the offer from the Singapore company was flatly rejected by the Chairman of MSL as it was linked to sports betting.

However the Malaysian cable TV were only willing to cough up RM1 million and it was rejected as RTM were told during the discussions that nothing less then RM2 million will be accepted from any cable station.

And when the current holders purchased the rights for last season under cable TV, a clause that was inserted in 2008, they paid RM1 million, though no one wants to clarify on this issue.

Now while we should view at the whole scenario as a business proposition, as to how the current right holders would be looking at it, the whole idea of the RM6 million came due to added clauses in the contract with RTM.

The government channel wre given rights to all international matches as well as the FA Cup and other M-League rights besides the customary branding rights on the pitch. And they were allowed to source sponsorship from TM which was the then official sponsor of the M-League. Prior to 2008, the FA Cup rights were sold to another TV station, but that is another story.

The catch was that while providing the live feed for overseas market, RTM were not allowed to collect any payment from the foreign TV networks ( as in the case of the Merdeka Tournament), as all payments were to be channeled to FAM. This included matches involving Brunei.

Hence RTM was right to stand firm on giving RM4 million, as they have previously done, without any issues. And the poor folks who cannot afford the dishes would have enjoyed the Terima Kasih, Terima Kasih, Terima Kasih from the chirpy Hafizal Hamad.

Still we applaud the gesture from the right holders in offering RTM and also their coverage has been great so far, no complaints there.

Folks in RTM have been bombarded with comments from football fans who did not understand the intricities involved in the rights issue.

Now with RTM agreeing to pay, the issue will be resolved. But at what expense? RM6 million which is yours and my money - the tax payers.

But I do have a suggestion to the Sports Minister though. Why did you not utilise the part of the RM14 million that was given to a private TV station, which closed their operations in Malaysia last December, and give it to RTM to help the public realise their dreams of watching their football stars in action?

Or is it in fixed deposit, collecting interest, as is the RM10 million that the Prime Minister announced in January 2010 after we won the Sea Games gold medal in 2009?

But in the end, it is resolved, as will the saga of Misbun Sidek, the KOAM issue, the blatant under counter payment requested by certain organisations for the rental of football fields nd so forth.....

FIFA DOOMED IF HAMMAM WINS - VELAPPAN

A former top official of the Asian Football Confederation slammed Mohamed bin Hammam on Monday for challenging Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency, saying the organization would be "doomed" if the Qatari wins.

Peter Velappan, a Blatter ally who was the AFC's general secretary from 1978 to 2007, said bin Hammam's pledge to bring "new blood" into the leadership of world football was "the joke of the century."

The Malaysian's comments underscore bitter divisions that could increasingly become public following last week's announcement by bin Hammam, the current AFC president, that he would run to replace the 75-year-old Blatter.

"FIFA will be doomed if Hammam became the president," Velappan told The Associated Press. "It would be very detrimental."

Bin Hammam announced his candidacy on Friday, mounting the first serious challenge to the FIFA head in nearly a decade.

Bin Hammam was travelling in France on Monday and could not immediately be reached for comment, according to a representative of AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

Velappan claimed that bin Hammam had led the AFC like "an autocrat" since becoming president of the organization in 2002 and was insincere in his pledge to bring more democracy, transparency and integrity to FIFA.

"These are the very things he has not done in AFC," he said. "There is no democracy in AFC."

He added he believed bin Hammam would try to "buy up" support to win the June 1 vote in Zurich.

"He is definitely an underdog but you can't rule out his influence," Velappan said.

Bin Hammam recently spearheaded Qatar's winning bid for the 2022 World Cup. The 61-year-old still needs the formality of being nominated by one of FIFA's 208 national federations to run for the presidency.

In announcing his bid for president, bin Hammam said he would broaden FIFA's decision-making power and spread its wealth if elected. He proposed creating a new FIFA board to replace the existing executive committee, which some regard as concentrating power in too few hands.

"Sepp Blatter is a very experienced person and has made a significant contribution to the development of the game worldwide when he was a general secretary and when he was elected as president," bin Hammam said. "But I also believe there is always a time limit for everything and now the time is for new faces, new blood, new air, too."

Blatter, who has been nominated for re-election by Somalia, has led FIFA for 13 years.

"Blatter needs this (fourth term as president) to fight corruption in football, including FIFA," and to tackle the problem of illegal football betting, Velappan said. "This is not the time to challenge."

Bin Hammam has long held ambitions to lead FIFA, which has had only eight presidents in its 111-year history. If elected, he would be the first Asian to hold the post.

AZMI IBRAHIM COACHES SPORE SPRINTER

The Courts Young Lions have Vanda Sports Group behind them. The talent management and sports marketing agency been looking after the under-23 footballers' off-pitch activities since the start of the 16th edition of the Great Eastern Yeo's S-League last month.

It is still a work in progress and it remains to be seen if Singapore's fickle football fans will throng the stadiums.

Fast forward two months and Singapore athletics has also jumped onto the professional sports management bandwagon, with the first beneficiaries being the men's 4x100m relay team, who cracked the national record with their 39.82sec silver showing at the 2009 SEA Games in Laos.

Local company Pinnacle Sports Group have signed on Gary Yeo, Muhammad Elfi Mustapa, Muhd Amirudin Jamal and Calvin Kang - who replaced Lee Cheng Wei at the Commonwealth and Asian Games last year - for the programme.

Lee, who was hampered by a hamstring injury last year, could be included in future.

Managed by former national sprinter Frankie Lee, Pinnacle will assist the athletes with sponsorships, tailor customised plans to juggle studies, training and competitions, as well as plan their careers.

Speaking to MediaCorp yesterday, Lee said: "We work in consultation with the sportsmen and women, parents, schools, coaches, associations and sponsors to ensure the talents are well managed in all aspects of their lives, so that they can concentrate on improving.

"Each athlete will have a customised schedule, low risk investment trust fund asset up from their cash sponsorships, which will be managed by professional fund investors and planners, insurance, regular exposure to local and foreign media, and a strong fraternity of sports people to seek advice from.

"We are working with the SAA (Singapore Athletic Association) on other projects too, such as event sponsorship and are also in talks with other associations."

According to Lee, Pinnacle had recently secured sponsorship from Australian company Body Science to provide high-tech compression suits for the four runners, which will help their minimise training injuries.

Pinnacle is also trying to seek employment for Elfi and Amirudin after they graduate from the National University of Singapore this year. Said Amirudin: "This saves us the hassle of sourcing for sponsors as it can take very long, and they are helping us to create a more professional image. "Hopefully, with their help we'll be able to turn semi-professional when we graduate."

The 24-year-old psychology student has also begun training with a new coach, former Malaysian sprinter Azmi Ibrahim, to improve on his individual speed. He ran the season's best time of 10.53sec last year and hopes to finish in the medals at November's SEA Games in Indonesia.

Amirudin will join other members of the squad, which is to be expanded to include more runners, for relay training under coordinator Melvin Tan once a week.

Tan, who worked with the SEA Games silver medal quartet, has outlined a series of races - the Philippines Open (May 20-22), Taipei Open (May 28-29), Sri Lanka Open (June 4-5), Ho Chi Minh Open (July 1-4) and the 19th Asian Track and Field Championships in Kobe (July 7-10) - for the team to qualify for the SEA Games.

They will have to equal or better the qualifying mark of 40.16sec - the bronze winning time in Laos.

Said Tan: "My target is to bring the individual speeds to below 10.60sec by July, and to go below 40.16sec by then."

WHY I QUIT - BY WAN JAMAK

"It was a decision I had to make given that I believe we must not only talk of being professional but act in a professional manner. And given the present circumstances, I was left with little choice but to send in my letter of resignation.

At this juncture it is not important to find fault or point fingers. A decision has been made by me with regards to my coaching tenure and I hope that all respect what I have done.

In coaching a team, we have to adhere to collective responsibility. As a coach I can only do so much and the execution is done by the players. Given the situation in Negri, we did not have the best of preparation and there were a lot of changes initiated. Whether it was for the good or bad of the team, only certain quarters have the answer.

Life goes on as far as I am concerned as football is my bread and butter. So at the moment I will stay put and sort out family matters.

I am open to offers and would like to get back to coaching soon. I suppose these are the hazards of being a coach, when you win you get the accolades but when you do not do well then all the fingers point at you. There is no such thing as contributing factors as the bucks stops here. And in this case I am man enough to take responsibility.