FAM to revise Article 88; Azzuddin heads to AFF
Two interesting developments transpired during the FA of Malaysia (FAM) exco meeting on Wednesday.1. After much pressure and criticism, FAM's legal committee will now look into Article 88 of FAM's Statute and propose recommendations to "clarify" the infamous article before it is presented to the Congress in August.
2. FAM president who is also AFF president Sultan Ahmad Shah has appointed FAM general-secretary Azzuddin Ahmad (pic) as AFF general-secretary. Azzuddin is "honoured" with the appointment and is set to leave FAM by May 1.
Well and good that there are now attempts to look into Article 88 but it remains to be seen how will the draft amendments look like. Will the article envelope alternative Media (including websites, social Media)? Will it impose a further gag upon more people? Or will they decide to remove the Article altogether?
As for Azzuddin's departure from FAM, would this mean that Sultan Ahmad will also give up his presidency post and allow his son - FAM deputy president - Tengku Abdullah to take over? Such a takeover has been whispered along the Wisma FAM's corridors for sometime.
Also, who will be named the new FAM general-secretary? Although apparently FAM has a candidate in mind and the name will be announced on Monday, it is still a guessing game as to who will sit in the hot seat.
If true Tengku Abdullah is set to take over, he likes resourceful workers and one of the names that springs to the minds of many (who also happens to have a cordial relationship with the Pahang prince) is AFC executive director Windsor John Paul. However, it is highly unlikely Windsor will jump ship from a comfortable position in AFC and be dragged into FAM.
Nevertheless, the next person coming in should realise and understand the task and role played by the secretariat and there must be proper communication between all stakeholders.
Most importantly, perhaps the new gen-sec could start off by introducing a mini library on Malaysia football in Wisma FAM.
HD says: Thank you and all the best Azzuddin.
hamidin for gen.sec.....
ReplyDeleteismadi
Midin is not in my list....think carefully before you nominate...
DeleteHaresh, one of the matters decided during the meeting was the RM15,000 compensation for any home team, and RM5,000 for the away team whose Malaysian League match is shown live on TV. While I sincerely believe in Europe, the Americas and even South Korea and Japan, the TV rights money usually is being paid to the home team, I must say the share for the away team in Liga Malaysia is more or less justifiable, as if a football match is considered as a 'show' on TV, both 'actors' (teams) should get the pay, with of course, the 'stage owners' getting the bigger share.
ReplyDeleteStill do you think RM15,000 is really enough? Let's say the average ticket price for any Malaysian League match is about RM10. So logically, RM15,000 is only enough to compensate the 'loss' of maximum 1,500 paying spectators. With Astro, who owns the TV rights having about 5 million customers (just an estimate), having only a maximum of 1,500 lost spectators coming to any match is a ridiculous estimate. Surely up to 10,000 fans could prefer to miss their team's match should they know it would be beamed live on TV, especially when the weather is unpredictable, and they feel they could enjoy the comfort of watching on Astro at home. What more to say if the match is shown live on free terrestial TV? Surely, except for special cases of Kelantan or Johor DT, live matches on TV, whether cable or terrestial, would greatly impact the match attendance figures, and subsequently the teams' income. This should be the case for teams like Selangor, Pahang, Negri, Perak, Kedah and Sarawak. For instance, let's say a Malaysian League between Selangor and Perak at Shah Alam Stadium could potentially attract up to 30,000 fans, including up from Perak. Yet if the match is shown live on TV, with the fact being promoted to subscribers around one week before the match itself, many fans might end up deciding to watch it at home, especially Perak ones who would not want to bother themselves by taking the trip. Let's say the actual matchday attendance is 15,000, so that would mean a loss of about RM150,000! Getting a peanut compensation of only RM15,000 would mean big loss for Selangor.
People might say this could be initially compensated from the TV rights money paid by Astro via FAM at the start of the season, perhaps a few million per team, but if we think carefully, having none of one team's matches shown live on TV would mean more profits for the team, and loss with live matches due to the affected attendances.
It seems like the current arrangement of Malaysian League broadcasting rights profits the TV stations, while it is severely hurting the teams competing.
Even without tv showing Selangor's matches Live, the team is struggling to pull in the numbers to the stadium. There are many factors pulling the crowd away from the stadium such as karaoke, piratd dvd, cineplex, astro and its multiple channels, zoo negara and the quality of the matches itself.
DeleteNot Hamidin! Fickle minded & poor PR.
ReplyDeleteFAM need a professional not another amateur.
Finally the worst gen sec gone! Feel like winning world cup
ReplyDeleteDear gry, the worst is not over as the SC is just taking orders from the President(in FAM case, it is actually the Deputy President). Hence, we wont see any improvement until those top 2 actually leave.
ReplyDeleteHD, there's no point if the President leave and being taken over by the Deputy President coz FAM has always been run by the Deputy president 1!!! We need someone totally outside of current FAM's management.
Pak Nik