Fifa World Cup - Time to give Malaysian team a sporting chance

Scandal robs interest in local soccer

JUST imagine this conversation taking place in a cafe. “We are going to win the World Cup! No question about it,” says Football Fan One.

“You cannot talk about 1966 forever. With our strength in penalties, we will take it,” says Football Fan Two.
But says Football Fan Three, “Our squad is not as strong as when we won the last World Cup. I don’t really fancy our chances this time.”

Chances are you might have overheard or even been involved in such a conversation. Football fans will recognise the “we” in the conversation as England, Germany and Italy respectively.

Golden team: The Malaysian football team redeemed itself when it beat Vietnam 1-0 to win the Sea Games gold medal after 20 years. — S.S.KANESAN/ The Star

 

An outside observer might think that the trio involved in the conversation were born in London, Berlin or Rome – but in fact, these people are from Gunung Rapat, Banting and Besut, 100% born and bred Malaysians.

“I find it amusing when people say “we” when talking about teams located thousand of miles away from where they were born,” says Kenny Lee*.

A Liverpool fan, Lee admits that he is guilty of the same when talking about his favourite team. But he realises that he should be following the local football scene instead.

Many local football fans affiliate themselves with foreign teams, especially those from the English Premier League, and some are hard-core supporters of these teams.

Now, with the 2010 FIFA World Cup around the corner, many are proclaiming themselves to be Brazilians, Italians, Germans, Argentinians or Spaniards.

Many Malaysians can rattle off the starting eleven of a famous team, but ask them to name the starting 11 of the Malaysian team and many would struggle to name a single player.

When the Malaysian team played two friendly football matches against Manchester United earlier last year, the red of the English team outnumbered the yellow of the national team among fans at the stadium.

This prompted J.D. of Red FM’s Breakfast Show to come out with a public service announcement urging Malaysians to support their local football team.

“Although people were wearing the MU jersey, they were supporting Malaysia, and this was a cool experience,” he says.

He was encouraged by Malaysia’s performance against Manchester United and said he would support the team if they gave their all in every game.

J.D, says he always reads news of his state team, Perak, and watches a game when he has the opportunity.
As for Lee, he follows the progress of the national team. He was happy that Malaysia won the SEA Games gold medal in Laos last year after 20 years.

He watched almost every game live and made it a point to go out and watch the final.
“Very few people were watching the game. If it were a Liverpool vs Man United game, the whole place would have been packed,” he says.

Lee says that he does not follow the local leagues as much today compared to the early 90s, citing the lack of quality on display as the reason.

The national team hit its peak in the 1960s and 70s, and the older generation always talks about how the players of this era played with their heart and soul. One always mentions Mokhtar Dahari, Santokh Singh, Soh Chin Aun and R. Arumugam, and the national team qualifying for the 1972 and 1980 Olympic Games as the heights of Malaysian football.

Local soccer experts say many Malaysians lost interest in local football after the bribery scandal in 1994/95, and attention was diverted to the European leagues.

Datuk M. Jegathesan, the Olympic Council of Malaysia deputy president, believes people adopt teams for a sense of belonging. He points out the recent Thomas Cup finals where Malaysians packed the stadium to watch their heroes play.

“There was a great frenzy and tickets were sold out. A winning team captures the imagination of people,” he says.

That is the reason why people support the more successful clubs.
“If you watch only for the technicalities, there are no emotions. But if they pick a team, there is a surge of adrenaline. That 90 minutes distracts them from their other cares in life,” he says.

He points out that the various local cup finals still attract a fair bit of on-off support.
“There just isn’t enough to sustain it from day to day to rival what is being offered. They have to compete with the market forces,” he says, adding that local sports needs mass support to propel it to greater heights.

As for the World Cup, Jegathesan will be watching it from a technical point of view.
“I am watching to appreciate the game. I don’t have a stake in any of those teams,” he says.

Ravind Ramesh, 33, considers himself to be a patriot. This avid football fan is not planning to follow the World Cup until the later stages.

“Basically, I don’t have anyone to support,” he says.
While he supports Arsenal, he still follows the fortunes of his home club Kedah. He recently attended the FA Cup Final which saw Kedah lose to Negri Sembilan. And whenever Malaysia is playing, he makes it a point to go for the games.

James Wong* also follows the fortunes of Perak, despite the lack of excitement and quality. He attends games and follows the highlights when he has a chance.

“I feel that they need more support now because a club can’t survive without its fans,” says Wong, who is an avid Tottenham Hotspurs fan.

But not everyone shares the same passion. V. Prasad, 37, used to watch Malaysian and Selangor games live until the 1994/95 football bribery scandal.

“I felt cheated,” says the Tottenham Spurs fan.
He says that his interest in Malaysian football waned after that, and the last Malaysian game he watched live was a World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia in 1993.

Prasad says that in the past, there wasn’t such a big gap in dignity and prestige between supporting a foreign team and a local one.

“No one would have laughed at you then if you said you supported Malacca,” he says.
One of his fondest memories of local football was when Malaysia defeated South Korea in 1979 to qualify for the 1980 Olympic Games.

“I remember hearing that live on radio. It was no different from watching Ricky Villa dribble past a handful of Manchester City players to score the winning goal in the 1981 FA Cup final,” he says.

Those are the two most memorable goals I remember in my first few years of following football,” adds Prasad.

So when will he start following the local scene again?
“If we do well in the next Asian Cup and qualify for the World Cup, we will have millions of Malaysian fans. We would all be painting our faces,” he says.

Blogger Rizal Hashim (rizalhashim.blogspot.com) believes that cable television has played a huge role in influencing Malaysians. He says that growing up in the 70s, the coverage of foreign football could not compare to today’s.

“The perception is that local football is in the doldrums,” says the former sports writer.
“Try to know our own team at least. Whatever you say about them, they are still our representatives. I do not like it when people say they cannot name the starting 11 of the national team. Because of technological advances, there is no excuse for it – it’s a matter of wanting to know,” he says.

He says that winning the Sea Games gold medal was a good start, and Malaysians should be supportive of their own team.

He points out that neighbouring Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam have good support. It has to be noted, though, that these countries are not setting the world of football alight either.

“But their national team is a source of pride for them,” he says.
K. Rajagopal, coach of the national team, says that while people can support the foreign teams, they should support the national team as well.

“Come and support the national team. Not just for football but for all the sports. It is important for the future of sports,” he says.

*Names have been changed for anonymity.

Warming up for Fifa Wordl Cup football fever

Punters and eateries get the ball rolling

Once every four years, an unusual pandemic afflicts the entire world. This scourge is commonly known as football fever. With the 2010 FIFA World Cup just five days away, productivity is expected to go down and relationships put on hold.

P. GOBIND* recalls how an ex-girlfriend – who was not a football fan – simply could not understand why he had to watch every match possible during the 1998 World Cup. He and a group of friends had gone to the extent of renting a small apartment for a month for the sole purpose of watching the tournament.

“As fresh graduates, some of us were renting rooms. So we decided to have a place for ourselves where we could watch matches at ungodly hours and make all the noise we wanted,” he says.

His mistake was keeping the place a secret from his girlfriend – he did not want to justify why he was spending money on an apartment when he already had a place to stay.

“What I didn’t know was that a close friend of hers stayed at the same apartment block, and she noticed me coming late at night and leaving early in the morning a few times,” he says.

Setting the mood: Choo has made significant upgrades to his establishment to target the niche market for the tournament.

 

Gobind says that his girlfriend initially thought he was being unfaithful, but eventually accepted his explanation. But that, he says, was the start of the decline in the relationship.

“She simply could not understand why football – and this tournament in particular – was so important to me. No matter what I said, she could not see the sense in it,” says Gobind who is now married to a football fan who fully understands his passion.

Working offside

Another avid football fan, James Chua*, cannot wait for the tournament to start, and is planning on watching as many matches as possible.

During the 2006 tournament, he skipped work a couple of times to recover from a night of football.
“I was sick because of football,” he says.

The process engineer says the World Cup is a welcome distraction, and his work would not be affected.
This time around, the games will kick-off earlier, and Chua says the challenge will now be beating traffic jams in the evening to catch the 7.30pm games.

However, some games start at 2.30am, and some will be tempted to take a day off. That’s usually the case during major football tournaments such as the World Cup or the European Championships.

Choo: ‘We have standing orders for table bookings even though the tournament has yet to start’.

M. Vivekanandan, the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) general manager of industrial relations, says that during the major football tournaments, there is usually a marked increase in absenteeism.

“There will usually be a spike in the number of people who take sick leave,” he says.

In a typical year, the employee loss days (ELD) from work per year averages about four days. But when the World Cup is on, it goes up to five to six days.

Vivekanandan believes that this year will not be as bad as games start earlier.
Vivekanandan believes that shift duties might see a sizeable increase in absenteeism and operations could be affected.

A manager of a semiconductor company believes his company won’t be affected because their employees are mostly female. The only concern will be the technicians, who are predominantly male.

“We will switch off the televisions in the cafeterias and take out the satellite decoder cards, so they will not be tempted to take long breaks,” he says.

“I have been here for the past two World Cups and there have not been many problems,” he adds.
According to a physiotherapist in a hospital, there is a big spike in the number of people who have ligament reconstruction surgeries.

“It’s good timing because you usually get two months off work,” she says.
One person whose life will not change much is ex-national player and TV pundit Serbegeth “Shebby” Singh – an essential part of his job, after all, is to watch football.

“It is kind of weird trying to think about lifestyle changes (over the tournament) as this is my lifestyle! All I can say is that the first three days are the most difficult as the body receives a shock – the transition from day to night and night to day takes some getting used to. And the week following the tournament is horrible as the body re-acclimatises!” he says.

Shebby informs that he has watched 100% of live World Cup telecasts since the 1974 tournament, and his family is aware of his passion.

“I have never needed any excuses (to watch football) – my family knows better than to make me choose,” he says.

Henry Tan: ‘We are already deploying more installers to meet the demand’

For this edition of the World Cup, Shebby will be showcasing his talents to the nation of India – but only in the studio, and not the football pitch.

“I will be working on ESPN Star Sports broadcast to India, and will be based in Singapore. I am really excited as there are only about one billion people,” he says.

The ball is round

For those not backing a specific team, a good way to spice things up would be a small wager. Punting on football matches happens all the time, but during the bigger tournaments, the betting frenzy increases exponentially.

“Everyone wants to get into the action,” says K. Marimuthu*, an avid punter.
Marimuthu is backing Brazil to win its sixth title and will not bet on any of their games because of superstition.
For the other games though, he will wager at least RM100 on each game. He has his bookie on speed dial and will place bets after studying the latest team news.

“It can only make the game more exciting and I will have more at stake when I’m watching it,” he says adding that he usually breaks even at the end.

Another regular punter, John Liew* says that he will be betting on specific matches only. During the last Euro tournament, he lost up to RM5,000 and he says that he has learnt his lesson and will set aside only RM2,000 this time.

“If I lose that amount, I will stop betting. I will be more careful and only choose a team I am sure will win,” he says.

Liew will make his bets online through an account set by his bookie.
It is estimated that billions of dollars will change hands during this World Cup. The police have said that they have set up a task force to stop illegal book-making syndicates.

The police have also warned that action would be taken against anyone involved in illegal betting, whether he was accepting or making the bets.

If you were to assume that sales of televisions go up before the World Cup year, you’d be right.
According to Tan Boon Ming SB managing director L.K. Tan, TV sales increase about 30%-40%. He notes that sales this year started to increase from April, and the majority are buying flat-panel (plasma and LCD) TVs.

Tan says sales this year have been very encouraging, and shows about a 15% increase over the corresponding period four years ago.

He notes that the viewer experience is going to be better this time around.
“Four years ago, flat-panel TVs were expensive, and people were buying conventional CRT TVs. Prices have now dropped and most TVs are high-definition types,” he says, adding that there is ample supply of TVs.

Broadcaster Astro has major plans for this tournament.
According to chief operating officer Henry Tan, 55% of its total customer base already has the sports package.

“We are delighted to bring the coverage of the World Cup to Malaysians. All 64 matches will be broadcast live, and available in HD as well,” he says.

Henry notes that this tournament is notable as it can be followed on multiple platforms. It is available on multi screens – TV, online, radio, mobile and on the ground, he says, adding that commentary will be available in both Bahasa Malaysia and Cantonese.

Henry also informs that he has friends asking him to expedite their subscriptions.
“Installation may take up to a week. Malaysians are notorious for doing things at the last minute, and we saw that happening during the Olympics last year. We are already deploying more installers to meet the demand, but we would like to urge customers to sign up now to make it in time,” says Henry

Henry also notes Malaysians are luckier compared to their counterparts in neighbouring countries.
“Astro offers the lowest-priced sports package in the region. A customer only pays RM66.95 or RM86.95 (for HD). In a neighbouring country we understand that the World Cup will cost viewers RM319.20,” says Tan.

Attack and defend

Fred Choo, the owner of Souled Out restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, says that their business model changes during the tournament.

“The lunch crowd, in particular, is reduced, as people are recovering from the late night matches. It drops by as much as 50%,” he says.

However, on the whole, business volume goes up as many people flock to the establishment to catch the live matches at night.

“We hit record sales during the last tournament (in 2006), and we already have standing orders for table bookings even though the tournament has yet to start,” he says.

Choo says that he has made significant upgrades to his establishment to target this niche market for the tournament.

“We have spent about RM200,000, and will be showing all live games in high-definition. In fact, we can even show two matches simultaneously in different sections of the restaurant,” he says.

Similarly, Martin Beins, executive director of Chaswood Resources Sdn Bhd, with outlets such as TGIF, Laundry Bar and The Apartment, is expecting routine to change during the tournament.

“Productivity does drop a little bit, as some employees stay up to watch the late games, and business drops for the lunch crowd,” he says.

He notes, however, that there has been an increase in the number of football fans – especially from the fairer sex.

“A lot of people get involved during the World Cup, and we see more women getting excited about it.”
Beins informs that business picks up during the latter stages of the tournament, and patrons still turn up for late games.

“During the last tournament, we were packed to the brim, even at the semi-final stage. People get a little more boisterous and it is fun to watch a game with a big crowd,” he says.

* Actual/real names withheld on request

By JOSEPH LOH and RASHVINJEET S. BEDI

Not falling into the debt trap

Many in town are gearing up for World Cup mania – but some are getting ready for the betting mania, too.

THESE days, you can’t go around town without being assaulted by World Cup paraphernalia as the fever for the ultimate football tournament hots up. But look carefully amidst the colourful flags, stickers and posters that have sprung up, and you will see notices offering easy and quick cash.

There are even those which are offering loans to those who are blacklisted by financial institutions.

And although it may be difficult to tell whether the easy loan notices are offered by banks and legal moneylenders or illegal loan sharks, what is clear is that they are out to take advantage of the biggest party coming to town to sell their “product”.

As MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Michael Chong has ceaselessly highlighted, debts caused by sports betting usually spike during big sports tournaments.

It’s everywhere: A man walking past stickers and posters advertising easy and quick cash in Petaling Jaya.

 

This is affirmed by the police whose statistics in 2008 showed that up to 80% of debtors were regular bettors on the various sports, especially European League football games.

“There are many who seek the services of Ah Longs as a result of gambling debts, especially in football and horse race betting. The number will surely jump during this World Cup season,” warns Chong, adding that this usually involves bettors who play with higher stakes with online and illegal bookies; some gambling up to RM100,000 per game.

Proceed with caution

Malaysian Licensed Moneylenders Assoc­iation (Milma) president R. C. Veeraseelan cautions borrowers not to be drawn in by the sweet promises of these easy loans.

“If anything sounds too good to be true, usually they are. So, the public should not be duped by these offers, much less be tempted by the notion that you can use the loans to win more money.

“Anyway, we have asked our members not to advertise using stickers or posters on public property to set us – the legal moneylenders – apart from illegal moneylenders, so I can confidently say that the notices for loans you see around town are not from legal moneylenders,” says Veeraseelan.

A check with a few banks around town, meanwhile, indicates that this “mode of advertising” is not one that is practised by most banks.

An officer, who declines to be named, shares: “It is true that the competition to sell personal loans is higher now, but putting stickers or posters on public walls is defacing public property, so most banks, if not all, will refrain from that kind of advertising.”

“It is bad for the bank’s reputation anyway,” she says.
National Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency (AKPK) corporate affairs and communications senior manager Devinder Singh also advises those who need to take out loans to borrow from financial institutions which are under the purview of Bank Negara Malaysia to enjoy better rates and terms.

“However, if you need to borrow from licensed moneylenders, be sure to shop around for the best rates. But do not borrow from unlicensed money lenders!”

He reminds borrowers to take out loans based on clear and specific needs, not wants.
“It is important to make sure you are able to repay the loan. Your total monthly loans repayment should not exceed 40% of gross monthly income,” he advises.

Veeraseelan is concerned that quick cash is becoming a way of life for many.
The demand, he says, is high all the time – “in-season and off-season” – and sports betting is not the main reason for debt among Malaysians.

True, it was reported that unsecured loans – personal loans and credit cards – made up 55% of the bank sector’s loans at the end of 2009.This is a spike from the 16% at the end of 1999. Moneylender Wilson Chong echoes Veeraseelan’s view.

“The demand for loans is high, regardless of whether the borrowers are of high or low income. Even VIPs take out loans.”

He adds that the demand is high because people need to get a housing loan and car loan while some borrow even for their daily expenditures.

“Others need to borrow for medical emergency, children’s education, to start a business or to refinance their loans.”

This is supported by statistics from AKPK, which shows the majority of their clients who had difficulties servicing their debts cite high medical expenses as their main reason (26%), followed by poor financial planning (25%) and losing control on usage of credit cards (15%).

Devinder Singh believes that the crux of the problem is that many are living beyond their means as well as lacking knowledge in financial management.

Last year, 36,848 people appro­ached AKPK for counselling, out of which 16,184 enrolled in their debt management programme.

To date this year, some 10,572 people have received counselling from AKPK, with around 5,123 people participating in the programme.

By HARIATI AZIZAN  sunday@thestar.com.my