Foul!

As published in Mailsport today By Nicolas Anil and R. Loheswar  mmsports@mmail.com.my KUALA LUMPUR — It was a press conference to announce 21 players had not been paid salaries totalling RM4,397,000 but instead it revealed how Armed Forces made their players sign two contracts so they could pay less income tax,  Employees Provident Fund ( EPF) and  Social Security Organisation ( Socso). The official contract follows the rules and regulations  but the one with the club, said to be a mutual understanding between the Forces and the players meant they were under-declaring their income, thus affecting how much they contributed to EPF, income tax and Socso. The players were told they had no choice but to sign the club contracts and they greedily went along with the deception as they thought they could pocket the extra cash without repercussions. That backfired spectacularly as the 15 players have not been paid for six months till their contracts ...

"Amt (amount) owed for EPF, Socso & Income Tax reduced to RM1.3million" I find that statement disturbing. Teams have not been paying their players' EPF, Socso and income taxes for years. Read here , here and here . The national body (FA of Malaysia) have in the past announced that "action will be taken" against teams that default such payments. And yet, we hear that amount owed is "reduced" - if that is true indeed. Reduced is not the word. It should instead read teams have CLEARED all payments as that is how it is supposed to be. And a word of advice to national bodies - say what you mean or be branded as cakap tak serupa bikin. Meanwhile, read about the matches played in the evening here . HD says: When will we ever learn..

....Sosco and Income Tax! It's 2012. The M-League is supposedly a professional set-up. Yet, we still speak about unpaid EPF contributions Sosco and income taxes. Some may say that FINALLY the FA of Malaysia (FAM) is taking charge of the matter after they issued a stern warning to 10 teams to pay up their debts amounting to RM 2.1 million before November 23 or be dropped from the league next season. The warning was made during the executive committee meeting yesterday. But those who have been in the scene long enough are tired with such talk. I, among many, have touched on unpaid EPF, income tax and wages among teams for many years and have always included it in my articles as seen here and here . Even former NST reporter Christopher Raj had written about teams owning EPF in 2009. Why has FAM been scared to crack he whip all these years? Simple - too many people with vested interests, too many individuals wearing too many hats. When one tends to wear too many hats...