SEPT 11 — News that Safee Sali and Safiq Rahim are to get trials with Cardiff City and Queens Park Rangers in the upcoming weeks have excited Malaysian football fans around the globe. In fact, I dare say that this is the most excited we have been since the days of Mokhtar Dahari and R. Arumugam. And some of us can’t even remember that far back — or were even around, at that!
The last time our national football team qualified for an international event — the Moscow 1980 Olympics — we ended up not going because we boycotted the event due to the actions of the then-communist Soviet government. (Okay I know it was in protest of the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union... but the Soviet government was a communist government, and communists are so topical these days…)
The current national team line-up is something we should quite rightly be excited about. After the forgettable 1990s, mired by scandal and bribery, and a somewhat confused decade following that, it’s nice to have a squad we can cheer on with the full knowledge that whatever the score line is, they have indeed given their all.
As a reward for their performance, trials with teams in the top two tiers of the English league is fair dinkum. They are talented players, but the state of our league means it is highly unlikely that scouts from top leagues would be filling the stands.
In getting these well-deserved trials, however, we have had to play a bit of nudge, using connections to open doors previously somewhat locked. It is no mere coincidence that Safee and Safiq are getting trials with two clubs that have a distinct Malaysian connection: Cardiff City is owned by Chan Tien Ghee, and QPR’s new owner is Tony Fernandes — both proud card carrying Malaysians.
In fact, the presence of Malaysia in the English league is quite significant, even before Chan’s and Fernandes’ forays into the ownership market. If you take a look at the kits worn by the referees, sown on their shirts are Air Asia (until 2009) and Tune Group (from last season) logos — yes, Malaysian companies.
“How rich are your people?” asked a colleague of mine not too long ago, having noticed the increased Malaysian presence in the English game. I’ll save my rant of an answer for another day, but suffice to say that when you take the British owners of out the equation, others in the same class include Roman Abramovich, Lakshmi Mittal, Shaikh Mansour Zayed and Carson Yeung. No lightweights there.
Ownership of premiership clubs — and football clubs, at that — can be a revolving door, and as more and more businessmen see sports clubs as an investment, it would not be too long before another fad strikes their fancy and they take their pennies somewhere else.
I am not saying that Chan and Fernandes are only in it for the short haul; far from it for me to conjecture upon that, but rather, I am saying that there is no certainty that they will forever be owners. And once they cease to be the concierge to open doors for our footballing talent, where will our football be?
We need a long-term plan in developing the internationalisation of our football that would allow us to achieve consistent success, as opposed to flashes in the pan that are too quick to burn out. As it is, QPR manager Neil Warnock quite rightly pointed out that even if Safee and Safiq impress premiership or championship clubs, getting work permits for them may be quite a wrangle.
Work permits are issued only to players from countries ranked 70 and above in the FIFA rankings. Given that we are currently ranked 146th out of 203 in the latest rankings, we are closer to the bottom than we are to the magical number 70!
Additionally, what is the point for us to have one or two Malaysians plying their trade in the European leagues if the bulk of our national squad are still hovering at the same level? And so, with a longer time frame in mind, I am arguing that we need a long-term plan that allows exposure of our players to local SEA leagues in the first instance.
Safee Sali has led the way in this respect, having signed on with Pelita Jaya this year. As more and more of our players ply their trade in leagues in South-East Asia, they are bound to catch the eye of scouts from higher-ranked Asian teams and leagues, such as the South Korean, Japanese, Chinese or Arab leagues. Only when we have proved our mettle in Asia would European leagues look our way – and quite rightly so.
If you think about it — Park Ji Sung did not go to Manchester United via a deal done through Korean owners of Premiership clubs. He plied his trade at his university club, Myongji University before catching the eye of Japanese club Kyoto Purple Sanga (yeah, I don’t get the names of these Japanese clubs either) before going to PSV Eindhoven and then Manchester United.
Similar parallels can be drawn from the careers of various Asian players who have played or are playing in top European leagues, such as Kazuyoshi Miura, Hidetoshi Nakata and Keisuke Honda.
There are many benefits to sending our players abroad – even if at first, abroad refers to countries Air Asia would fly you to for less than RM50. For one, there is the mental strength of being away from home – harder than you think, and homesickness afflicts even the best of players.
Second, the exposure to an international set of players would benefit how we adapt to players with different physiques, among other things. Whilst at Pelita Jaya, Safee came across players from Brazil, Uruguay, Mali, Cameroon, South Korea and Japan to name a few. Granted, they aren’t quite national squad players, but that’s got to be better than facing the same old Malaysian faces week in week out.
We can’t be ranked 70th in a fortnight – unlike university rankings, you can’t manipulate your standing by tweaking the variables measured. In football, all is down to 90 minutes on the pitch. But with a long-term plan I think we’ll get there, if not beyond. I honestly do.
And yes, I actually think my proposal is half decent. Do you reckon this this will get me my dream job of as the Malaysian football overlord (or overperson, if you wish to be politically correct)? If so, TalentCorp... where are yoouuu?
I’m only half kidding.
* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.
