It looks like Sultan Ahmad Shah, the president of FAM does not wield enough power in the daily administration of the national body.
Read excerpts of the story that appeard in KOSMO today, December 29, on page 60 within the heading Malaysia bertemu Syria esok.
To make it simple to understand, please read the two contrasting statements which I have highlighted to emphasise as to why the President wields no powers as his instructions can be disregarded.
"Ditanya tentang bonus hampir mencecah R30,000 seorang buat pemain pemain skuad bawah 23 tahun (B-23) negara yang memenangi pingat emas Sukan SEA XXV di Laos baru-baru ini, XXXXX berkataia akan diberikan minggu ini.
"Mungkin kita akan adakan satu majlis penyampaian bonus itu pada hujung minggu ini iaitu sebelum pemain-pemain berlepas ke Dubai pada Isnin," jelasnya.
However please read the SMS that was received from London, an instruction from HRH Sultan of Pahang.
Hye rakan2 media. Salam dr Lndon. Tuanku smpaikan ucapan Selmat Tahun Baru 2010 moga byk kjayaan akn d tempa lg. Tuanku ingin umum kan "winning bonus 4 U23 team in last final SEAGames's bnk RM10k setiap pemain. Bonus ini akn d byr esok, ari Isnin 28hb. So total ksluruhn brbyr ada lah hmpir RM30k 4 winning bonus ini pd setiap pemain. Tuanku titah akn sntiasa berikan prhatian yg penuh pd team ini. Mohon rakan2 media dpt hebahkan maklumat ini. Tq fm Col Azhar prg khas kpd KDYMM Prsdnt FAM
Tony Fernandes increases West Ham takeover speculation with trip to Upton Park
Malaysian entrepreneur Tony Fernandes attended West Ham United's Premier League victory over Portsmouth and later met manager Gianfranco Zola, which may fuel fresh hope that he could eventually get involved in the club.
Fernandes said last week that he did not want to bid for West Ham United at this stage, particularly because he had his "hands full setting up a Formula One team", although he also questioned how the club had been managed as a business. The 45 year-old is team principal for Lotus's return to Formula One in 2010.
Telegraph Sport revealed last month that Fernandes had held detailed discussions with West Ham chairman Andrew Bernhardt, but that the negotiations had not come to fruition.
Fernandes has now distanced himself from any takeover talk. This has been a source of great regret at West Ham as the innovative businessman, best-known for setting up budget airline Air Asia, is regarded by many as an exciting potential investor.
Fernandes, 45, said last week that he might be tempted to make a move at some point. However he did not indicate that it would be any time soon and his attendance at the Portsmouth game is not thought to be connected with any fresh talks. He is a committed West Ham supporter.
CB Holding, the company set up by the creditors of West Ham's former owner Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, appointed Rothschild bank to deal with potential investors and talks have taken place with a number of parties, including former Birmingham City co-owner David Sullivan, although his bid of around £46 million falls short of their valuation.
CB Holding insists it is under no pressure to sell and has a three-year plan to retain ownership of West Ham if it does not find the right investor. However it is also aware that new funding would help create greater stability.
Fernandes, who employs 7,000 people, is a colourful character and a highly-successful businessman. He met with Zola, assistant Steve Clarke and technical director Gianluca Nani after the Portsmouth match and afterwards spoke of how excited he was and how pleased he was with the result.
He rose to prominence by turning Air Asia, a failing government-linked commercial carrier, into a successful budget airline which is a publicly-listed company and performing strongly. He founded the company just after September 11, 2001.
"There's a fine line between brilliance and stupidity," he said in an interview last month, and has described himself as "kindred spirit" to Sir Richard Branson. Indeed, the pair are very similar characters with an entrepreneurial, innovative spirit as well as a sharp business brain.
Fernandes, who was educated in England, is also renowned for his sharp marketing ideas and original thinking – it is not unknown for baggage handlers with his airline to rise to become pilots.
He ascribes his business acumen to his mother who could "sell ice to the Eskimos", while describing his father as a "communist doctor". West Ham will hope he may, some time in the future, be sold on them as a business idea.
For winning the Gold Medal after a hiatus of 20 years, the Malaysian players received a total of RM30k each, including a RM10k bonus plus the match winning bonuses as practiced by FAM. But a word of caution though, not every player I believe will get RM30k in total as it depends if you are fielded or named in matches. So the final amount may vary.
Just read the Bernama story below, Vietnam paid out RM720,000 for the silver, so if we were to divide it equally among the 20 players, it works out to be RM36,000 each.
And the Vietnam women's team received RM995,780, working out to whopping RM49,789.00 each.
To be fair to FAM though, it was sponsors who topped up the winnings, so what say you Telekom Malaysia?
Received this SMS that was forwarded to me by Jaiho just moments ago:
Hye rakan2 media. Salam dr Lndon. Tuanku smpaikan ucapan Selmat Tahun Baru 2010 moga byk kjayaan akn d tempa lg. Tuanku ingin umum kan "winning bonus 4 U23 team in last final SEAGames's bnk RM10k setiap pemain. Bonus ini akn d byr esok, ari Isnin 28hb. So total ksluruhn brbyr ada lah hmpir RM30k 4 winning bonus ini pd setiap pemain. Tuanku titah akn sntiasa berikan prhatian yg penuh pd team ini. Mohon rakan2 media dpt hebahkan maklumat ini. Tq fm Col Azhar prg khas kpd KDYMM Prsdnt FAM
Bernama Story
Despite losing to Malaysia in the final at the Laos SEA Games last week, the Vietnamese Under-23 football team will still receive a handsome reward.
According to the Asian Football Federation's (AFF) website, the team would receive a reward of USD210,000 (about RM720,000) following their success in winning the silver medal at the biennial games.
They will receive USD100,000 (about RM342,900) from the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) while the balance of USD110,000 (about RM377,190) would come from their sponsor, Global Audio Visual Joint Stock Company.
The national women's team, who beat Thailand on penalties in the final classification match, received USD290,000 (about RM995,780).
The Asian Football Confederation will kick Singapore clubs out of future Asian Champions League competitions unless attendances dramatically increase in their domestic league.
Under the AFC’s new entry criteria, only teams from leagues with average attendances of over 5,000 per match will be allowed to participate in the Asia’s biggest club competition from 2012. Participating leagues must also have a system of promotion and relegation.
The 12-club S.League currently fulfils neither of these criteria.
But league chiefs say they are confident of boosting attendances to reach the target - even though they are getting average crowds below 2,000 this year.
"We've met the majority of the list of criteria set by AFC and we are confident of meeting most, if not all, of the latest list of criteria," a spokesman for the Football Association of Singapore told Reuters.
"Singapore football and the S.League is constantly improving on and off the pitch in terms of the business models, management, marketing and technical standards among other areas."
S.League champions Singapore Armed Forces must get through two qualifying rounds to reach the group stages of the ACL next year.
Last month, South Korea's Pohang Steelers beat Saudi Arabia's Al Ittihad 2-1 in the AFC Champions League final in Tokyo.
West Ham United were revaluating prospective buyers last night after Tony Fernandes withdrew his interest. The Malaysian airline entrepreneur criticised the financial management of the club who have debts of about £80 million. “I worry about the club’s future, in a precarious situation and badly managed with a poor balance sheet,” he said. “It’s not tempting for a buyer.
On one hand the NSC says that their budget has been slashed but on the other hand they are holding yet another sports convention, this time at PWTC.
In October there was a convention in Genting Highlands and now at another leading centre.
Well there is still the Sime Darby Convention Centre and Puttajaya Convention Centre to hold another two conventions.
With the state of sports and the continous lament on lack of funds, wonder just how much is spent on these conventions and a comparitive study done as to how many candidates attend the same conventions time and again?
What have you to say Mr. Minister, holding a convention after convention, to my knowledge the fourth this year.
OXFORD, England (AP): Mercedes GP has signed a long-term agreement with Malaysia's national oil company Petronas to become the title sponsor of the Formula One team.
Financial details or the length of the deal were not disclosed in the announcement Monday.
The new Silver Arrows and Petronas branding will appear on the Mercedes car when it makes its track debut at Valencia on Feb. 1 for the first of the preseason tests.
Petronas also sponsors the Malaysian Grand Prix, which is schedule for April 4 at the Sepang International Circuit.
Mercedes-Benz has returned to F1 racing under its own name for the first time in 55 years by buying Brawn GP, which won the drivers' and constructors' championship last season.
There hasn’t been much for Malaysian football fans to smile about over the past few years. The older followers remember the good old days when the team was respected around Asia.
They remember lording it over their regional rivals and appearing at events around the world. Qualification for the 1972 Olympic Games, ahead of the likes of South Korea and Japan, was a high point; a bronze medal two years later at the Asian Games wasn’t bad either.
The Tigers also qualified for the 1976 and 1980 Asian Cup.
Much has been written about the decline of Malaysian football on Goal.com and elsewhere and now is not the time to go into that. Suffice to say that Malaysian as a whole has fallen behind a number of south-east Asian rivals.
The 2007 Asian Cup was a disaster and is qualification for the 2011 version and while clubs from Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam all have recent experience of the Asian Champions League, Malaysia’s best have some way to go.
Yet despite all the infighting, the politics, the allegations of corruption, self-interest and the incompetence (such as banning all foreign players in the league) in Kuala Lumpur and among the state associations, there had been rumours that there were some decent young players hovering around and not getting mangled by the system.
The youngsters have been playing together for some time and coming into the completion has a better reputation than the senior team. Players such as Razak Zaquan, Safiq Rahim and Ahmad Shakir Ali all have bright futures though in Malaysia, nothing is ever certain.
A gold medal was certainly far from certain in the group stage. Malaysia had some decent results in the build-up to the competition and then thrashed Timor Leste 11-0 in the group opener but then came a chastening 3-1 defeat at the hands of an impressive Vietnam team.
The movement of the victors and incisive forward play suggested that it was not going to be Malaysian necks adorned by the gold medals when the final was played on December 17.
That defeat put pressure on K. Rajagobal's charges and it was how they reacted to this situation that was impressive. Knowing that they had to win both of their remaining games to make the semi-finals, the young tigers fought like, tigers. Cambodia were dispatched efficiently and then came a dramatic, late, come-from-behind 2-1 win over Thailand.
Momentum was now Malaysia’s. A 3-1 win over hosts Laos in the semi-final set-up a rematch with Vietnam. The odds were against Malaysia but football has a habit of surprising in these situations. A solid defensive performance followed and then a late own goal broke Vietnamese hearts and sent Malaysian fans wild with delight.
For those not familiar with south-east Asian football, it may be supposed that an Under-23 tournament in a regional meet is not a big deal. It is however taken very seriously.
Thousands of fans and hundreds of reporters followed Vietnam, Thailand’s exit is rife with ramifications, Indonesian fans are depressed at an early elimination and the whole Laos nation is delighted with their performance off the pitch, in staging a successful tournament, and on it, where they reached the semi-finals.
But not all is sweetness and light for the Malaysians. The young players may have shown promise with their skills but also disappointed hugely with their antics in the first match against Vietnam.
Angered by the decisions of South Korean referee Kim Jeong-hyeok, a pack of young Tigers chased and manhandled the official. Some Vietnamese newspapers even claimed that bottles were thrown.
The scenes were ugly – the senior ASEAN competition has its fair share of ‘episodes’ – and drew condemnation from almost everyone though coach K. Rajagobal sadly tried to defend his charges.
National Sports Council (NSC) Director-General Datuk Zolkples Embong was less impressed and was quoted by local newspapers as saying the scene was “a disgrace to the country.” He added, "To me, the referee was fair and indeed a number of decisions made by him favoured the Malaysian team." Zolkples who also blamed some members of the coaching staff for provoking the players.
In the delight over the victory, and it is good to see Malaysians feeling proud of their team, those scenes should not be forgotten.
If the players that so proudly celebrated the win in Vientiane continue to develop their skills and help restore Malaysia to the ranks of regional power then football fans in the nation will be thrilled.
If they can also help to improve standards of behaviour on the pitch in south-east Asia, then everyone will be a winner.
Credit goes to coaches K. Rajagobal, Tan Cheng Hoe and Fauzi Mukhlas and the other support staff for the GOLD medal triumph at the SEA Games.
There is no doubt that the present FAM administration will be trying to claim all the credit. But the truth is there for all to see as archives do not lie. Just read the stories written by creditable journalist in 2006 when the youngsters were nurtured, with FAM taking the bold step to let the government play a role, and the Ministry of Youth 7 Sports having faith in the ability of the youngsters.
An MOU was signed between FAM, represented by Dato Seri Dr. Ibrahim Saad, the then General Secretary, Rosli Hussein, the then Asst General Secretary and NSC who were represented by Head of International Preparation Division Arrifin Ghani and Director General Dato. Dr. Ramlan Abdul Aziz.
The goverment via NSC agreed to fund the team to the tune of RM3 million per year with a target to win the gold medal in the 2009 Sea Games, though it must be said that some in FAM doubted this vision.
Several meetings were held between the then Sports Commissioner Tan Sri Elyas Omar, KSU Datuk Nik Mahmud, Dato Zolkples Embong who was at that time the Director of Administration of NSC, Arrifin, YB Ghazali (not Yang Berhormat) as well as Dato Ibrahim, Rosli, ER Subramaniam.
The end result was the MOU binding the government support for the team and after Dato Zolkples took over as DG of NSC he honoured the MOU after having held an eyeball to eyeball meeting with Khairy Jamaluddin in January 2008.
After that it was decided Harimau Muda as the team was to be called, play in the M-League and over the years it was due to something started in 2006, of which people like Dato Ibrahim, Rosli, Dato Ramlan, Dato Zolkples, Arrifin, Tan Sri Elyas and Datuk Nik who were key to this team.
And not forgetting Dato Seri Tony Fernandes, who through Kuhan Foo arranged the team's training at Carrington, the all famous Manchester United training ground.
Below are just two stories that lend credibility to this disclosure....
THE FA of Malaysia (FAM) has endorsed the Government's decision to adopt the National Under-20 squad and will work closely with the National
Sports Council (NSC) to ensure its success.
Towards this end, FAM has formed a Working Committee to streamline and establish clear demarcation of functions and responsibilities.
This, said FAM deputy president Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, was necessary to ensure there are no disputes and Fifa guidelines are adhered
to.
Although Tengku Abdullah did not elaborate, Fifa guidelines on non-interference by governments in national football associations are clearly spelt out.
"FAM welcomes the Government's decision to adopt the national Under-20 team.
"On our part, we will collaborate very closely with the NSC to ensure this team gets the best," said Tengku Abdullah after FAM's council meeting in Kuantan.
"A Working Committee has been formed to establish clear roles and functions so as to avoid disputes.
"At the same time, it will ensure that Fifa guidelines are followed.
"Both parties will work very closely in the team's preparations, be they tactical, technical, coaching, nutrition, friendly matches and tournaments, both local and overseas.
"This team - comprising mostly under 18 players - have great potential and represent our hope for the future," he added.
A gigantic effort, said Tengku Abdullah, was needed to restore the country's football pride and bring back the glory days.
As FAM cannot do it alone, the Government's decision to adopt the national team is timely and most welcome, he added.
Tengku Abdullah said over the years, FAM had invested some RM4 million annually on the various national teams' preparations and now part of its
financial burden will be reduced.
According to Tengku Abdullah, the players will come under the payroll of the National Sports Council as part of the AsiaComm programme.
"However, the players will be all be allowed to play for their respective States but the focus would be the team's preparations for the Asian Youth Cup finals in Kolkata for which Malaysia have qualified on merit."
FAM will be represented in the Working Committee by Tengku Abdullah,FAM general secretary Datuk Seri Dr. Ibrahim Saad and Datuk Redzuan Sheikh Ahmad, while the NSC will represent the Government.
K. RAJAGOPAL'S hard work in building a team worthy of bringing pride back
to Malaysian soccer has paid dividends with the Sports Ministry (KBS) agreeing to finance the national Under-20 for the next four years.
The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) agreed to hand over the
running of the team to KBS but will have some input on the way the team is run.
The Under-20 team will compete in the Asian Youth Tournament in Kolkatta, India,in October - the first time in 28 years that they will compete as qualifiers.
Malaysia played in the 2004 tournament as hosts and the last time they made
the cut was in Dhaka in 1978.
"We have finally put everything into place for us to take over the running of
the Under-20 team," said Sports Minister Datuk Azalina Said Othman.
"We will bankroll their trips, pay their wages and look after their well being.In return, the players will have to sign contracts with AsiaComm.
"This doesn't mean the door is closed to other players. We will keep an eye
on their progress and FAM can suggest new players they feel will
strengthen the team."
Rajagopal has lined up a series of playing tours for the team with the prestigious Copa B.H. de Futebol Junior tournament in Minas Gerais, Brazil from July 12-30 topping the list.
Admittance to the prestigious tournament, which is the top competition
for Under 20 teams in Brazil, is by invitation and four international sides will square off against more than 10 local teams. Among the Brazilian clubs who will participate are Corinthians, Sao Paulo, Flamengo, Fluminense, Santos and Gremio.
Trips to Iran, United Arab Emirates (UAE), China and Slovakia are also
in the pipeline while South Korea and Japan are expected to be invited to Kuala Lumpur to provide the team invaluable test matches ahead of the
Kolkatta assignment.
There could even be the possibility of the Under-20 outfit competing alongside the senior team in the Merdeka Tournament sometime in August.
Among the players in the team are skipper Mohd Aidil Zafuan Abdul Radzak, Mohd Zaquan Adha Abdula Radzak (Negri Sembilan), Selangor's Safiq
Rahim, Kedah's Sabre Mat Abu and Kelantan goalkeeper Amini Ahmad Tabarani.
Meanwhile, FAM general secretary Datuk Seri Dr Ibrahim Saad said the players will be based in Kuala Lumpur but they will be allowed to turn
out for their home states in the Malaysian league.
"We have already spoken to the players about the situation and all of them have agreed to sign contracts with AsiaComm," he said.
"I know some of the older players may be able to earn more than the RM2,500 AsiaComm are playing and we are looking at ways to help them.
"However, since the majority of them are pre-university students with some even still in secondary school, there should not be a question about
wages.
"As nearly all of them are products of the BukitJalilSportsSchool,we also don't have to pay compensation to the State FAs."
He added the players will only be allowed to play for their home states if the matches do not clash with Rajagopal's plans.
"Obviously, if the boys are overseas or are preparing for a tournament,they would not be released," said Ibrahim.
KBS will also look into hiring more coaches for the team but Rajagopal's job as head coach looks secure.
