Foul!

My heart goes out to the family members of those on board Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.    Haresh Says, as published in Mailsports today. Images of team officials and players arguing on the sidelines followed by claims of assault in the tunnel at Larkin Stadium on February 1 have been grabbing the headlines recently. There was hesitance by certain quarters to name those involved during half-time of the Johor Darul Takzim (JDT) against T-Team after several players and officials claimed Johor FA president Tunku Ismail Ibrahim, who is also the Crown Prince of Johor, was in the tunnel. In a Super League match on February 7, Pahang’s Jamaican player Damion Stewart claimed he was subjected to abuse by JDT Argentinean imports Luciano Figuero and Pablo Aimar. It is now the final week of March, almost two months since both incidents took place. Yet, the FA of Malaysia (FAM) disciplinary board have yet to discuss these incidents. Why the delay? ...

...the changes brought about in Johor football have been amazing. From a well maintained field to electronic boards that surround it, Larkin Stadium is now dubbed as one of the best stadias in the country. The players are well taken care while the Southern Tigers have a rather impressive website. All this happened during Tunku Ismail’s reign as Johor FA’s president. But the spirit of football is not just based on modern facilities and money. It is about fair play and sportsmanship. It applies across the board — royalty and commoner. Let us not drag the holy and sacred Quran into this fiasco. Football has its own rules and regulations, and that must be upheld. Referring to the scuffle between Pahang and JDT fans last Friday, Tunku Ismail, was quoted in an article “Be ethical, not theatrical” on Johor FA's website saying: “This cacophony of bickering, provocation, insults and humiliation would not bring any benefit and may result with rancor to no end.” Spot on. The M-League does no...

Apa sebenarnya yang berlaku di Johor Baru sehingga T-Team menarik diri daripada menentang Johor Darul Takzim?           HD kata: Harap perkara ini disiasat oleh pihak yang berkenaan.

Furious with the condition of the pitch, T-Team have taken the FA of Malaysia to task for allowing the match to take place at Petaling Jaya Stadium. They have lodged an official complaint with the national body and do not want upcoming matches to be played at the stadium. "It was impossible to play football yesterday (Saturday). The pitch was unplayable. Our players could not make decent passes or make attempts in Selangor's penalty box throughout the match," said T-Team CEO Abd Rasid Jusoh yesterday. "I am dumbfounded as the stadium management did nothing to improve the quality of its pitch after the end of last season when it was far better. "Hopefully, FAM will pick an alternative venue for Selangor. No match should be hosted at the stadium until the problem is rectified." T-Team coach Azraai Khor Abdullah described the pitch as an embarrassment. "The match was telecast 'live' so everyone saw firsthand the quality...

It is the worst bus crash the nation has ever seen. 37 killed, 16 injured after a bus plunged into a ravine near Genting Highlands on Wednesday. The Land Public Transport Commission pledges to investigate, find the cause of the accident, come up with preventive measure and penalise those responsible. But haven't we heard all of this before? In fact, it is business as usual at the Pekeliling bus terminal where the bus company operates while passengers remain oblivious to the fact they too could be a casualty if things remained the same. Read all this and more in The Malay Mail today. Meanwhile, Englishman Peter Butler - who quit as Kelantan and T-Team coach - has left Twitter too! It is unclear to why Peter decided to ditch the social media tool but many believe it had to with some ranting which later turned into a spat between several other Twitter handlers which stemmed from Lim Teong Kim's appointment as the football technical director under the National Sports Cou...

UPDATE 6.20am (Jan 29): Baljit sends a text message that read; "Hi bro, water is back finally. Thanks bro alot..." Well thank you Syabas. -----------   UPDATE 5.30pm: Still no sign of water. Read what Baljit and Syabas have got to say here . ----------------  UPDATE 10am : Just got off the phone with Syabas' customer service and they claim the pump house at Taman Halaman was faulty but has been repaired. They are unable to give an estimate time to when water will be made available to all areas but hope it will be done by today itself. Plenty of faulty pumps these days eh? #justpointingouttheobvious ---------------- I am writing to you hoping you would seriously consider the plight of national hockey player Baljit Singh ( pic ). You see, Baljit is finally tying the knot with his sweetheart of almost five years, Jesvin Kaur, this weekend. Just like any other young couple, they wish to have a memorable wedding with plenty of fond memories. And mind yo...

Itu masih menjadi tanda tanya tetapi ramai peminat Liverpool terutamanya di Terengganu ingin melihat kelibat Fowler sebagai jurulatih T-Team musim depan. Apa yang pasti ialah penghijrahan kembar Abdul Radzak - Aidil Zafuan dan Zaquan Adha - ke pasukan 'Manchester City' baru, Johor FA. Azmi Muslim juga akan ke Johor yang kini terkenal dengan Legoland dan Johor Premium Outlets. Baca laporan penuh disini. Safiq Rahim pula dikatakan berminat untuk bermain bersama kelab Indonesia Arema Pelita tetapi ingin memberi fokus terhadap persiapan Harimau Malaya menjelang Piala AFF Suzuki bulan depan. Walaupun baru sahaja memenangi Piala Malaysia dan menerima lot tanah sebagai ganjaran, ada juga pemain Kelantan akan keluar yang ingin meninggalkan Kota Bharu. Ada ura-ura yang menyatakan bahawa Khairul Fahmi Che Mat ingin beraksi dengan kelab lain - atau bersama kelab Indonesia. Apa yang pasti, persaingan sengit akan berterusan di musim 2013. HD kata: Baru...

Artikel-artikel menarik hari ini; 1. Pemain Selangor Asraruddin Putra Omar diintai dua kelab Portugal iaitu Internacional FC (divisyen lima) yang berpusat di Santander dan OS Belenenses (divisyen dua). Baca laporan selanjutnya di sini . 2. Persatuan Bola Sepak Kelantan ingin mengharamkan penggunaan vuvuzela di Stadium Sultan Mohammed IV. Johor FA telah pun mengharamkan vuvuzela di stadium mereka. Laporan penuh di sini . 3. Polis akan memanggil pegawai kanan Persekutuan Bola Sepak Asia bagi membantu siasatan berhubung penyelewengan dana badan induk. Artikel penuh di sini . 4. "REFEREE oh referee, why are you always picking on me?" - jurulatih T-Team Yunus Alif setelah pasukannya kalah kepada Selangor dalam Piala Malaysia tempoh hari, seperti dipetik NST hari ini. 5. The Malaysian Hockey League could be re-branded next year to attract more teams for the annual competition which is on the decline due to poor response - laporan NST . It SHOULD be re-branded. Kudos...

In 2010, I wrote about President's Cup players, including from T-Team, being on the take ( pic ). Today, 11 players and five officials from that T-Team squad are being investigated by the FA of Malaysia's (FAM) disciplinary board. The others are from the MP Muar (4 officials, 3 players) and Penang SDM Navy (4 officials, 4 players) 2011 President’s Cup teams. All 31 are temporarily suspended from football activities until the DB meets and discusses about any possible action. As said on Awani Ekstra last night, I am baffled to why the responsible party is only taking action now despite T-Team having lodged a report coupled with my stories on the match-fixing fiasco surfaced two years ago. But I added, "better late than never". Read The match-fixing scandal widens on FAM's current investigation and When and how it all happened for a recap of my story in 2010. HD says: I believe more will be named and shamed.

It's not been a pretty start to the season for the FA of Malaysia (FAM). First, the national body has got a lot of explaining to do - which they have yet to do so - about the mind-boggling insurance scheme seen in 2011. Now, the Terengganu Chief Minister Ahmad Said ( pic from Berita Harian Online ) has threatened to pull the state team and T-Team out of the Super League over the ineligibility of Terengganu foreign signings to play in the Super League. NST's headline states FAM threatened while Berita Harian reported Saman FAM . Here's a question. Fifa ruling clearly states there should not be any government interference in football. How can an MB dictate the fate of the team? But here's a catch. It is an open secret that most teams and even the national team receives funding from the government - may it be State or from the Sports Ministry. So how ah? HD says: Solution simple. League run privately. Full stop.

"Leaving without saying goodbye is low in my book and apart from coaching them football, I hope Yunus Alif will coach them some manners too." Those were the words of Permai Hotel public relations manager Ruhana Abdullah. Ouch! T-Team latest imports Zambian striker Zacharia Simukonda ( pic ) and Bosnian defender Bojan Petric had apparently snubbed a Christmas dinner organised by the club, as published in today's New Straits Times . Perhaps the players were "tired". But turning their backs against the fans even before the season starts is not a good way to start a healthy relationship. Both players now better prove their salt or they could very well suffer the wrath of the T-Team fans. HD says : Public relations and engaging with the Media is key to the making or breaking of any individual, club and organisation.

UPDATE: Terengganu edge Selangor 2-1 (agg: 4-1), Negri Sembilan defeated T-Team 2-1 (agg: 6-3). Terengganu play Negri Sembilan in the final. ------ Irfan Bakti seems bullish of Terengganu entering into the final. However, P.Maniam's Selangor could find their Mission 33 campaign come to an end in the return leg semi final tonight. Terengganu secured a 2-0 win in the first leg at the Shah Alam Stadium. Selangor's biggest problem is finding the goals. The Red Giants simply lack sting up front. Negri Sembilan, meanwhile, beat T-Team 4-2 in their first leg semi final clash and are hoping to extend their lead in Paroi when both teams meet in the second leg. So could it be a Terengganu-Negri final after all? The Star seems to think so. NST believe it is do or die for Selangor and T-Team. Berita Harian says it is ' detik penentu ' while Utusan said this is Selangor and T-Team's final chance. Here's a question, had it been another team instead of Selangor suffering f...