SAY WHAT?
As far as my memory serves me correctly, this is certainly not the first time the FAM contemplates as to whether or not allow foreign players to ply their trade in our local leagues. Back in 2008, Khairy Jamaluddin announced an "infinite decree" that foreign players will be barred from competing in the local football league effective January 2009, stating the reason "after years of allowing import players to play in our leagues, they did not improve our football standards at all'".
A year has passed, and now there's news of the possibility of lifting the ban on imported players. This possibility is in fact welcomed by fans and pundits alike, but let us not forget that there are some opposing views regarding this notion of allowing foreign players to come to our local leagues.
On a personal level, THE AQUINAS is of the opinion that this policy is just one of the numerous foolproof evidence of FAM's penchant of backtracking on its decisions. The FAM reasoned that the ban on imported players is somewhat necessary, for the sake of improving the standards of local football. Furthermore, the imported players, as I would quote Khairy J, did not improve our local football standards.
Maybe it is just me, but THE AQUINAS cannot help to think that there is an obvious flaw in the reasoning dispensed by the FAM. How can they point their fingers towards the foreign players for the lack of standard displayed by Malaysian football? The case might be true if the foreign players make a huge part of the squad of each participating teams. However, that is not the case, as each team is only allowed to have THREE imported players in their squad. If you ask me, this just does not make sense mathematically. How can you expect three people in a football team to screw up the whole football system? Even the Calciopoli needed several teams to screw up the Serie A. A complete failure in the logic department, I may say.
And that is just the top of it. These turn of events also illustrate the tendency of FAM of putting the blame on others whenever they come under criticisms. Blaming the foreign players for the downfall of Malaysian football? Nice segway, big shot. Honestly speaking, roping in foreign imports without any substantial domestic effort will not do our local football scene any favours. If this happens, we might as well brace ourselves for the next official statement from the FAM "re-banning" foreign players.
What we need right now is a total revamp of the national football administration system, especially at the top level. We need to change the way things are run. We need to send our top players to play abroad, so as to gain valuable exposure and experience, instead of spending every off-seasons playing equally less-than-stellar teams in the Middle East or Hong Kong.
Please do not take my word as it is. Look at South Korea and Japan. Their domestic leagues have only a handful of imported players, but there is a considerable number of their local players plying their trade in Europe. As a result, they have a world class national team playing at the World Cup, beating formidable opponents before their unfortunate elimination from the tournament. How I wish Malaysia could do the same, or achieve something a little better.
They better do so before my 45th birthday.
THE AQUINAS has spoken.
seriously i tak kenal any of them. :/
ReplyDeletewell said matt.. ^^ keep it up
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