Foul!

KL's win over their Klang Valley rivals was marred by unruly fans, outside the KLFA Stadium, who called Selangor's Ifedayo Omosuyi a monkey. I got a shock reading this  New Straits Times  article. This is just utter rubbish, it should not have happened and those guilty of such unacceptable jeers should be banned from coming near any sporting venue. I'm sorry, Ifedayo Omosuyi.  Those racist individuals do not reflect the true sentiments of Malaysians.

  Who is Muhammad Aiman referring to? I wonder which sport is the team from. I think I may know which team but I'll keep my thoughts to myself.   This particular paragraph interests me: Bagi aku senang, boikot jer, takyah bagi publisiti langsung kalau itu cara dia. Dia meroyan takpe, tapi kalu player mengeluh, merungut dia nak saman media. Acaner tu? Bila ditulis benda positif takde pun share artikel tu di platform media sosial masing-masing, bila tulis negatif laju jer mengugut ... Sue the media? Well people are free to exercise their rights. If its defamatory, the 'victim' has every right to take legal action. Otherwise, don't waste the courts' time lah . What Aiman said is true. When credit is given when due, it is taken for granted and appears to be a birth right. When something "negative" (the word negative is extremely vague and wide these days) is published, certain quarters will be quick to react.  I'm sure those who get offended easily would l...

  Yet, three-time Olympian Josiah Ng is seen as not good enough for the National Sports Council (NSC). He was considered for a coaching role in the NSC cycling programme last year but he did not get the job eventually. But the NSC’s loss is certainly Sarawak’s gain. The 41-year-old Josiah has now been entrusted with the task to coach the Sarawak cycling team for the 2022 Malaysia Games (Sukma) in Johor. This appeared in The Star today. On Feb 24,   news website Twentytwo13 tweeted: Former national cyclist @JosiahCyclist will be the performance coach for @sepangcircuit talents. pic.twitter.com/YUWiwk1yHf — Twentytwo13 (@Twentytwo13news) February 24, 2021 The former national cyclist was also Thailand's coach. And Josiah was left stunned  after he was branded a traitor on social media following Jai Angsuthasawit's Asian Games gold medal victory in the men’s keirin. So Josiah is good enough for Thailand, good enough for Sepang International Circuit and good enough for Sar...

This poll is from Bahas Bola.  As Malaysia has started with the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme should athletes, officials and fans produce their Covid-19 vaccine passports before they are allowed to enter into stadiums? What say you?  It'll be interesting to see how certain quarters react to this. p/s: I'd expect the guy behind Bahas Bola, Yunus Zakariah, a regular contributor of Twentytwo13, to write about this in his next Twentytwo13 article.

"Our intention is to protect every single person within the sports bubble and to keep it safe. Once again, I would like to stress that the athletes and coaches have choices. They can follow our processes or be on their own and take full responsibility.” Those were the words of National Sports Council Datuk Ahmad Shapawi Ismail, as reported on Twentytwo13 today. Click on Twentytwo13 to read the full article. Shapawi was responding to what was posted on this blog on Feb 22 . To stress once again, the Feb 22 'It is not a sports bubble. It is a prison' posting was a MESSAGE received by the author.  It's good to see the director-general of a government agency engaging with the press.  If only other government agencies and ministries do the same.

Like it or not, such blueprints only serve as eye candy. And the same will be said about the National Sports Vision 2030. That was the last paragraph of my article published in Twentytwo13 this morning.  This is not to disrespect the civil servants who have been tasked to come up with the blueprint. But the content must be strong. The narrative must be stronger and planned even before the announcement is made. This is to ensure constant conversations regarding the vision. It is also important to obtain the "buy-in" from other ministers/ministries too.  I must add there should have been more thought put into the National Unity Blueprint 2021-2030 and 10-year Digital Economy Blueprint before they were launched. Don't let the National Sports Vision turn out to be another " syiok sendiri " effort. I doubt there will be anything new to offer. Let's just start working on getting the basics right. I mean well. I truly do.

"It’s not a sports bubble. It’s a prison. Some of these athletes have not been allowed out since they got in during the RTT (Road To Tokyo) camp in June last year. Athletes from Sabah and Sarawak I’m talking about.  Olympic athletes are getting severely stressed because they have no ability to disassociate from their training environment.  General public sport has begun yet MSN (National Sports Council) is forcing the national athletes, who share the same venue as the public, to remain in their prison.  The person who came up with this ridiculous sports bubble SOP (standard operating procedure) has not considered the long-term impacts on the wellbeing of the nation’s top athletes.  All they really care about is (cyclist) Azizulhasni (Awang) but he’s free to go about his normal life in Australia while his teammates in Bukit Jalil are going stir crazy in a low-performance environment. Once again MSN stifles creativity with a one size fits all approach." I received this...

The National Sports Council (NSC) turns 50 today. Happy anniversary! Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican was quoted by Harian Metro as saying:  "Sementara kita berbangga dengan sejarah lalu, kita perlu mencipta lebih banyak cerita kejayaan dan nama-nama baru di tinta emas dalam bidang sukan. "Perencana dan pencetus 'prime mover' kepada keseluruhan ini tentu sekali terletak di bahu MSN (NSC)."   So what exactly is NSC's role? Has it evolved for the better or worse? And more importantly, do we really need such a government agency? If you are at NSC's site, make sure you click next to Maklumat Am  (general information) and slide to the left. Otherwise, you'd see an "Oops! Nothing Found". If I was NSC, I'd actually rectify that. If you click on Sejarah (history), I believe some paragraphs are missing. Or perhaps it's my machine is not high tech enough to read the fonts. Oh well.  And more importantly, let...

  On the left is Khalid Abdul Samad. On the right is Tan Sri Annuar Musa. Khalid is the MP of Shah Alam, president of the Kuala Lumpur Football Association served as Federal Territories (FT) Minister up until the sudden change in government early last year.  Annuar Musa is the Ketereh MP and is now the FT Minister. Both of them were seated next to each other, even smiling, at a press conference organised by Kuala Lumpur United. The duo were cordial and respectful throughout their session and despite their differing ideologies, they spoke highly about the need to promote Kuala Lumpur football. As I tweeted, football unites. Football unites. pic.twitter.com/kM3AK897Lz — Haresh Deol 🇲🇾 ‏ (@HareshDeol) February 20, 2021 But these two gentlemen have had tensed episodes in the past - in Parliament. Watch the video below. While schools will start soon, people can already dine-in, non contact sports are now allowed and the M-League will kick off soon despite the Movement Control Or...

On Feb 10, I wrote: The Malaysia Open is scheduled for March 31 to April 4. However, the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) may be forced to postpone the tournament again with the Movement Control Order (MCO) still in place. Read the full article on Twentytwo13. The Badminton World Federation yesterday confirmed: Take note badminton fans, here's the latest from @bwfmedia : Malaysia Open 2021 will now take place on May 25-30. Malaysia Masters 2021 has been postponed until further notice. Singapore Open 2021 has been moved to June 1-6. The @Olympics qualifying period ends on June 15. — Twentytwo13 (@Twentytwo13news) February 19, 2021 So will the Malaysia Open really take place on May 25-30?  I had in my article highlighted why this Malaysia Open could turn out to be super costly for the host - ie. the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM). There are also several factors to consider - the on-going battle against Covid-19 and talks of a possible general election. In short, ther...

Seriously? Langkawi CITY? It's a fucking archipelago! Why not call the team Pulau Langkawi? Copying the suffix of an English team owned by oligarchs is daft. https://t.co/R3ZPw89uSU — Jakarta Casual (@JakartaCasual) February 18, 2021 Here's a tweet from Antony Sutton who is based in Jakarta.  Just like Antony, I'm equally annoyed with the word 'soccer' being used in Malaysia. In fact, the word 'soccer' is seen in Melaka United Soccer Association (MUSA).  I am, however, mindful that the word soccer comes from a slang abbreviation of the word association among British players back in the day. Here's a quick history lesson : Modern soccer was born in 1863, when representatives from several English schools and clubs got together to standardise a single set of rules for their matches. They dubbed their new organisation the Football Association, and their version of the game became known as “Association Football.” The word association was used to distinguish t...

I have been given the opportunity to write a column for the newly-launched Malay-language news website Getaran.  And my first column was about the FA of Malaysia president Datuk Hamidin Amin. Read  'Betulkah Tiada Orang Selain Hamidin Untuk FAM?' . Hamidin will lead the national body for another term (2021-2025). There are those who are elated. There are others who ponder: "No one else ka?" As I wrote: Siapa lagi yang mampu meraih sokongan ahli-ahli gabungan FAM kalau bukan Hamidin?  Siapa lagi yang mampu melayan karenah ahli-ahli gabungan yang kebanyakannya dibarisi ahli politik (atau mereka yang bercita-cita nak jadi ahli politik) kalau bukan Hamidin?  I doubt I can ever be the FAM president. Even if I ever do get the votes, I doubt I can deal with incompetency and 'drama'.  Nothing much has really changed in the nation's football landscape since the "during my times" days till today. Even some politicians have felt the heat in FAM and gave up....

  PM Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had virtually launched the National Unity Policy and National Unity Blueprint 2021-2030 on Monday. Since then, news website Twentytwo13 has been obtaining feedback regarding the initiatives. UKM's Prof Datuk Dr Teo Kok Seong told Twentytwo1 3's executive editor Graig Nunis that the usage of Bahasa Melayu should be at the forefront of any unifying activity and policy in Malaysia. Read ' Make BM a tool for national unity '. Senior lawyer and Rapera founder Datuk Seri Jahaberdeen Mohamed Yunoos, meanwhile, told Twentywo13 that the National Unity Blueprint seemed to lack the “necessary bite to give it a push.” Read ‘Many can’t speak BM due to attitude, usage’ . While the debate continues, Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said sports need be given strong emphasis in the policy’s action plans as the majority of the people in the country love sports. He told national news agency, Bernama:  “Sports should be given h...

Over 100 swim school owners and operators across Malaysia hope the government will consider allowing them to reopen for business, as reported by news website  Twentytwo13 yesterday . The group said the Malaysian swimming industry has lost 90 per cent of its revenue in the past 12 months as they have only been allowed to open for 148 days or less since March 18, 2020. Joanne Ho, the director at Aquabubs Swim School, sent an email to the press on behalf of the swim school operators. The email had some stats to back the group's sad tale.  Ho also said: “The learn-to-swim industry had been the 'forgotten' essential service, which could have dangerous consequences. If there's no opportunity for people to learn how to swim, the drowning statistics of fatal and non-fatal drownings is going to go up.  A lot of children with disabilities need the water for their therapy, movement and mental health because they don't get a lot of options to do recreational activities or exer...

" Can we hold the management, coaches and (BA of Malaysia) council members responsible for the January failure too? Why only the players have to take the blame? To be fair, the BAM did say that the move would serve as a stern reminder to all others, especially the juniors that they do not tolerate mediocrity in the team." Those were the words of The Star's Rajes Paul.  The long-time badminton journalist has made some interesting observations regarding the dumping of five shuttlers - Soniia Cheah, Vivian Hoo, Goh Soon Huat, Shevon Lai Jemie and Lai Pei Jing - from the national stable. Click on the link for the full article. To me, the decision serves as a timely reminder to all athletes.  Having the opportunity to interact with athletes, I've realised one thing - many of them fail to plan for their immediate future. Some believe they will be athletes 'forever'. There are those who have left the scene and are still struggling to decide what to do in life. Some ...

  Bila tengok apa @KertehFC buat, teruja giler. Bayangkan kelab seperti ini boleh buat lebih dari PAFA. Owner Ghazoo Sports @GhazRamli ni pernah datang ke @peraktbgmy tapi PAFA pulak senyap seribu bahasa. @HareshDeol pernah cover isu ni tapi tak jumpa pulak artikelnya. https://t.co/GdEuS4buuy — 𝔐 𝔞 𝔰 𝔲 𝔱 𝔥 (@Nuraka_Jiwa) February 14, 2021 One is a football club located in the east coast of Pennisular Malaysia known for its delicious food, warm people and annual floods. The other is a set-up based in Perth. Here's a story about Kemaman's Kerteh FC and Ghazoo Sports - a sports company run by an Ipoh-mali who is now residing in Australia but has thankfully retained his Malaysian accent. It's a commercial tie up between the two small yet bold outfits covering Australia and New Zealand. It's taken Ghaz Ramli, a former journalist, four years to entice a Malaysian club. As I wrote in 2017, Ghaz held talks with Perak FA but I guess that didn't work out. More d...