COMMENTARY

AN avid fan has sent an SMS to emphasise the need for Football Association of Sarawak (FAS) to plug into the era of professional football.

He said a face-saving exercise was not enough as the association needed a major overhaul.

“The Sarawak giant will forever be sleeping unless professionals are recruited to manage the association, its assets and the state team,” the fan stressed.

“Do away with politics, ‘pilih kasih’ (favouritism) and mediocrity. This is the professional era.”

This fan, a professional working in Kuching, took the words right out of my mouth. His message is exactly what I have been trying to emphasise all this while that we should learn from the disastrous 2007 season and start anew by, first and foremost, avoiding past mistakes of allowing internal bickerings to stifle the development and progress of football in the state.

Remember the time when Sarawak made dubious history with a regrettable no-show in a preliminary FA Cup match against Pahang in Kuantan?

Furthermore, if fans need any reminding, in the 2007 season, Sarawak, fresh from promotion to the Super League, decided to field what was described by a fan as a ‘kids’ team to compete at the highest level of Malaysian football, reasoning that the players needed the exposure whereas, in stark contrast, all the other teams were parading their cream.

Perak had top strikers like Nigerian Beckamengo (who now plays in the pre-World Cup for his country), Police (PDRM) invested heavily in top Kenyan players while Selangor signed top Malaysian marksman Mohd Safi Salee who played for Sarawak in 2006.

Apart from the fan who sent the SMS, there are many others, including a former official from another sports organisation, who basically told me the problems of FAS were similar to those faced by many other associations.

“They are not dissimilar. Everything boils down to the people in the association and it’s very difficult to get the under-performers out because the constitution entrenches their positions.

“Perhaps, one way is to have a consultant look into the constitution … or even better, let the Sports Minister invoke the Sports Act to make sure sports associations behave and clear out the hangers-on,” they said.

Last season started off well under Khaider Zaidell who did a good job putting Sarawak back on the right track during the early part of his tenure.

He put forward a sponsorship plan to support a youth development programme, culminating in the launching of a Schools Under 16 League. For a while, things were looking up, and under Singaporean coach Kunju Jamaludeen, there was a real chance that like the phoenix, Sarawak could rise from the ashes. Fans returned in droves to the stadium in a sea of red reminiscent of the Ngap Sayot days.

But any hopes of a strong revival were soon dashed when a different set of officials came in with their own ideas to bring the game forward but ended up taking it backwards instead – with notably the suspension of several players for indiscipline.

Khaider called it a day after trying his utmost to save FAS. He did his best to refloat a sinking ship but the task was virtually insurmountable.

No one could ask any more of him. Apart from problems like the ACA probe into alleged match-fixing involving some Sarawak players at the tailend of the last season, the association at that time also owed accumulated debts of between RM3.5 to RM4 million.

FAS was left without a head for sometime. No one seemed prepared to occupy the hot seat, giving it the widest possible berth.

The presidency, once a highly respected post, was tossed around like a hot potato and anybody who was a somebody in the local football fraternity zig-zagged and side-tracked to make sure it did not land in their lap.

This ‘berdolak-dalih’ (passing around) of the presidency went on until early in the new season when Murni Suhaili stepped up to the plate. As the new chief, he has the diligent Abu Bakar Marzuki as secretary to help him open a new and better chapter for the association.

There are hopes that the two leaders will come out with a master plan to steer the association away from troubled waters and at the same time, be more accepting and appreciative of fans’ views and contributions to improve football in the state.

At least, the financial part will be taken care of but let’s hope the administration will also be brought in line with the aspirations of the new leadership. The role of the office staff, including the clerks or cleaners, may be small but they “control” the day-to-day operations, especially the nitty-gritty. These people and their misdemeanors, if any, should not be overlooked.

As proven in the past, they can throw the spanner in the works but hopefully, under the new leadership, problems will be nipped in the bud for the good of football in the state.