"Wish You Were Here at Bukit Jalil"

Pink Floyd, only appearance in Malaysia

Disclaimer: Right off the bat, apologies for the grammar, for the sentence structure, whatever English grammatical sin I may have caused. Trying to improve, trial & error only way to reach that close level of perfection

Behind the seats of the Bukit Jalil National Stadium revealed so much what is wrong with Malaysian football. Yes, we can be romantic about the AFF Suzuki Cup campaign we had. We can be proud of the team for making putting effort on the pitch. It's just, off the pitch matters revealed so many consistent problems.

The people who are in-charge, won last night. Tickets were oversold. The stadium capacity were over exhaust by an additional few thousand. There was no proper coordination between the security teams of the police, RELA and others. Fans risked their lives just to get a view of the game. A view, even a tiny part of the pitch was sufficient to risk their lives for. A number of disappointed younger fans with their families sitting at the side of the stand entrances looked dismayed for not having the chance of watching the game. At the end of the night, the people who are in-charge. Their wallets got a bit fatter.

The organisers should have coordinated with the businesses coming to the stadium grounds. To ensure there wouldn't be any wastage of items, like food, clothing & others. Organisers & the stadium ground should have worked hand in hand with each other. For example, for every X amount of food & beverage stalls open along with a certain ratio of spectators. There should be an adequate amount of functioning toilets & running water.

Let's face it sometimes fans are a finicky bunch. Still want to head to the stadiums even when the tickets are sold out. Well open up proper fan viewing zones around the stadium grounds or adjacent to them. Fully sponsored by companies associated with the competition, for doing that they get revenue. Have the whole Bukit Jalil or Shah Alam area soaked in one huge Malaysian atmosphere in & around the stadium.

To add to the topic of fans, this is just a suggestion. Could there be a section in the stadiums for families. Feel that they deserve an allocation section for themselves. Like the Ultras have. So that, you know families can enjoy themselves without having to worry too much.

With that, comes to the idea of FREE SEATING, what a load of (French Words). For that alone, shows somewhat of a lack of faith towards the Malaysian Football public that we'd even attend matches. If the tickets were to be sold accordingly to their seat numbers. A lot of the problems wouldn't arise.

For the Ultras, who were magnificent. Consider giving them a section properly dedicated to them. Like in other nations, most Ultras purchase sections that have standing seats, so that they can display their supportive art to the nation & the footballing world watching.

With all of that comes traffic jams, synonymous with Malaysians & people who lives in the Klang Valley area. However the traffic isn't vehicle type, it's the mass human traffic. Again everything is down to those who have the power to make things happen. Improve the facilities. Coordinated traffic flow. Start having standards, of International standards(hint Safee)

The infrastructure of the Stadiums, were not maintained and not even the sights of improvements. It is a sad fact that the stadiums will be left alone after clean up. Left alone standing until the next footballing event.

Do they conduct a proper postmortem? If they did, if they cared & if they have a set of convictions. Malaysian football fans wouldn't have suffered so much.

That was my view from half time onwards, along with others all over the stadium.
Unorthodox, but fantastic view of the free kick.

Will write up a chronological postmortem piece within the next 48 hours. A piece on the footballing aspect of the 2014 Suzuki Cup, Look forward to that.

Also Padang Bola Sepak's facebook page. Like our facebook page, if you are in to that sort of thing.

Let's Look At It.

Football is usually looked as an emotional, passionate, instinctive and heartfelt game. That’s all good but frankly Malaysia never had the academic, analytical and critical aspect nailed on.

It’s hard not to be romantic about our beloved national sport of football. This kind of thing, it’s fun for the fans like us. It sells tickets, sunflower seeds and jerseys, replica or original.

There is an epidemic failure within the game to understand what is really happening. And this leads people who run Malaysian football teams to misjudge their players and mismanage their teams. There is no need of examples. The examples are plenty to look at. Be it disorganisation's or politicking. Who suffers? The people that truly love the game with their hearts and minds.

Players’… people in the game are overlooked for a variety of biased reasons and perceived flaws. For example;

Player X. He’s a central midfield player. He is one of the most undervalued players in football. His defect is that he’s old, came from a different ethnicity and different social class. This player could not just the best central midfield player, but one of the most effective passer in all of Malaysian football. He should cost a huge Y amount. A team that uses the academic aspect of the game to their advantage can get him for a low Z amount.

Question, is there someone conducting proper data collecting and analysing on Malaysian football players? If yes, do contact us we would like to speak with you. If no, then they are not given the license to do so because of funding (budget) and perceived bias. Or the typical Malaysian answer, there is no job market for it. Hence no one wants to do so, even if a said person has the know how and passion to do it. It’s sad.

The academia of the sport is ever presently missing.

One may argue if we would take this route. We may cut the fun out of football. We may create a boring game of football. On the flip side, we may find a solution to the pain.

Embracing the academic side of the game while still invoking the heart of what makes football great. Opens up all kinds of interesting possibilities.

Troubled? At how different this approach is. This will be hard to get other to understand and accept. Transforming something and making massive changes, not everyone is going to understand. The important thing is going right from the get and then make the change happen. The best way to convinced people that this approach is the right one. Is to be right and show them (not tell them) this is the best way. Most people will never be convinced otherwise.

It’s about changing the game. It’s about seeing something that’s not quite right in our football and deciding to fix it. By using an academic approach with the foundation of our passion. Who knows where we will be.

By @padangbolasepak

Looking for more reading material? Go and read up on this, "Football is about community not about the money." by Dez Corkhill http://www.fourthofficial.com/football/dez-corkhill-football-is-about-community-not-money/

New Start.

Apologies. I thought when I first started this Malaysian Football Blog, I thought I will be able to commit myself 100%. It wasn't the case after last year's Malaysia Cup Final. Hopefully this coming Malaysia Cup will be better. Will be starting a twitter account: live tweeting games, re-tweets from top Malaysian Football Journalist, links to our articles & professionals.

Do apologies if our articles have bad grammar & structure. We'll do our best too improve along we go. If you are interested in helping us out. Do email to us at padangbolasepakmalaysia@gmail.com

I think we are a few sites that cover Malaysian Football in English. Reason being we want to reach out to an untapped Malaysian audiences out there. There are a number of Malaysian Football sites that cover the football in our national language. That doesn't mean we'll ignore doing articles in Malay. We'll have space to do that.

The plan now is to do:

Weekly articles.
Live Tweets.
And whatever a football blog do.

I'm in over my head here, but maybe a podcast in the future.

So this is our new twitter account @padangbolasepak do follow us.

That's all for now. Take Care

Regards, Khal.

Malaysia Domestic Season 2014

First rounds of the Malaysian Super League as well as the second has passed.

Apologises for lack of update. On this blog, this is just a spare time commitment.

Currently composing an article on Steve Darby's overall approach towards Kelantan. Will release it soon. Other articles in the works will be focused on JDT and Selangor.

An article that's quite closely related to my heart personally is on kit manufacturers and sponsorships deals in the league.