Sunday, August 05, 2007

we are suckers..again...yes ?



At a time when Malaysians are looking for miracle answers to the woes of Malaysian football, I find it very ironic, if not hypocritical of the Malaysian Government, in this case the Ministry of Youth and Sports, to hold an insignificant tournament that costs a whopping RM17 million of yours and my tax-deduct money !!!

Yes...I am talking about the
Champions Youth Cup under-19 tournament from Aug 8-19. Can you imagine that RM17m of our money is spent on a 12-day tournament? I believe the Ministry has signed on a 2+1 year deal, which makes it three years with a total of RM51 million ++ folks, over a combined total of a 36-day period .

Will somebody please answer these few awkward yet pertinent questions ???

How can a 12-day under-19 football tournament, even involving the world’s best clubs help elevate the status and standard of Malaysian football ?
Is there some kind of twinning programme where our under-19s can live, train, and compete in Europe ?
How does training with the Arsenal Academy for a week or two help improve the quality of our national under-19 team that went there ?
Isn’t that eyewash just to show that the CYC is beneficial to Malaysian football ?
If this was a showcase event for the celebration of 50 years of Merdeka, then why this isn’t a tournament that parades the stars of these clubs ?
Do Azalina and gang believe we the Malaysians are going to fill the stadiums to watch these matches when there are no big names in these teams ?
Are we being again conned by the "certain foreigners" with the help of our own kind who are probably profiteering out of this too ?
Who is going to question Azalina and her gang on this ?

But what stuns me the most is that the same Cabinet Committee for Sports that has demanded an explanation from the FAM, has not questioned the justification of spending RM17 of taxpayers’ money on a tournament that is in no way going to help develop Malaysian football.

Shouldn’t that money be channeled to football development? If Azalina and the Cabinet are truly interested in seeing our "juara kampung" football improve, and if they are sincere about wanting to help, then shouldn’t they have been more thrifty than spendthrift ?

Everyone knows that Malaysian football needs that money more than the "white men" who own this tournament. Here’s Malaysian football crying for help, and the Malaysian Government is pumping its money into frivolous ventures.

Sure hosting the CYC is good, but at this cost, it’s a sheer waste of money, At the end of the day we will be paying the "mat sallehs" RM17 million to humilate and demoralise our under-19 team right in our own backyard ! And then what is the Cabinet Committee going to do, ask for another report from FAM....or the usual post-mortem again ??

I am no fan of the FAM, and I know it has not done much to make its defence good. But how sincere can Azalina and the Cabinet Committee be about wanting to see football development in this country when they keep focusing on money-making ventures ?

A little bird also told me that a certain officer of the Ministry’s communications department is going to financially benefit from this tournament too ?.....heheheh...ya baby... Malaysia Boleh !!

I know the mainstream media can’t question the justification of the CYC because Azalina basically has them by their balls by investing in the various papers on advertisements. On top of that, the organizers have invested more than RM1 million in advertising in yet another main -stream paper.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but what it simply means here is, instead of sending the under-19s to Arsenal Academy, we should send our National team to Brasil for maybe 3 weeks or even 3 months (never mind the cost !!) and voila'...!... we'd have a world class team ready for the next world cup !...yes ??

So I believe we should say our piece and help put an end to this tournament being played here again for that kind of money. This year’s RM17m is lost, but I, Shanghai Stephen, hereby propose we still can save the country from being "screwed" of another RM34 million of our hard earned tax money !!
Cheers !

13 comments:

Rockybru said...

Mr Fish,
We still haven't admitted one thing to ourselves: we are useless and hopeless at football. We are a "football nation" only because we are big fans of the EPL.we should forget trying to play good football or form a team of Sea Games-class footballers because we haven't got it anymore. Let's spend that RM on squash, bowling, women's cricket, lawn bowling, and badminton. Forget football. FF. Forget football.

Rockybru said...

And darts, of course.

Anonymous said...

Way to Go Shangai Stephen, very valid questions. I totally agree, azalina has no biz spending all our money on a tournament like this. and neither she nor the Cabinet have the local standi to question about state of malaysian football when they are party to the downfall by sheer virtue of not helping, and spending millions on tournaments like this that don't do anything for malaysian football. its just like her community centre programmes spending RM1 million on each centre, and the brickdonbery centre in england. what is it about these people, when it comes to putting up buildings, they will bend backwards to spend money. like the CYC for instance, RM17 million for this crap tournament?
Its a money-making venture, not a football quality-enhancement venture. Shanghai keep this going, we have to do our part to stop this bigotry. Azalina is not sincere about developing sport, only her bank acount. and i am sure her cronies and those who are around her are also in the money-making biz.

Anonymous said...

All because for the name of money and influence by politicians, our standard of soccer will never reach anywhere. A lot of money had been spent on the pretext of improvement but so far the results is nothing but heartache & dissapointment.

Don't have to look so far, the standard of football of our neighbouring countries have developed so much that we can't even match them on any single match lately.

Some of this countries like Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam are even economically poorer than us & I don't think they have spent that much for soccer to be what they are today. Once upon a time during the era of super Mokh, Santokh Singh, Soh Chin Aun, Arumugam, etc, Malaysia was a team to be feared by all these nations, even South Korea. But now to play against Malaysia its like a blessing in disguise to them.

In Bolehland, all weaknesses and hiccups in whatever area (not only sports) seem to be solved or bailed out using millions of $$$$... ruling out the non-monetary factors and virtues like hard work, dicipline and quality of performance.

Don't know why they just cannot think that by putting in hard work and enforce fighting spirit is a secret recipe for success but still they believe that spending more money & further investments is the absolute answer to failure. They never realise that without the right attiude and mindset, no matter how much money is being spent, it will all go down the drain for sure.

The CYC tournament they may say is a investment to boost the VMY 2007 but it will definately not resolve the dire situation of Malaysian soccer.

Anonymous said...

Way to Go SF! This is the kind of 'crap' the government would like to cover. Keep them coming!

tony -stand-up philosopher said...

ShanghaiF,
If we are seriously going to spend RM17m for a tournament and the authorities believe that this will help put Malaysian soccer back to its glory days and beyond, then I suggest the authorities hire the likes of Alex Ferguson, Arsen Wenger or the serani Jose Mourinho...in other words PROFESSIONALS. Till they do that, we can kiss our football goodbye and nothing short of hiring Professionals will resurrect Malaysia's pathetic football standard. Really, how serious are we? That is the question. Truth is I don't think so. Even with the resignations of Ministers, Dpy. Ministers and Parlm. Sec involved in soccer is not going to change things. If we are, why keep the Menteri Besars? I can never never understand the way our authorities work. If we are serious, make serious decisions. Otherwise its all Crap la.

Alliedmartster said...

Whatever happenned to the MSSM project? The SUKMA is now a farce, medals more important than anything else!
I say all those money channeled to sports must stop! Better to use those monies to help the poor!
As for sports associations, raise your own money if you are that good!

I still cannot stomach, hithching a helicopter ride just to hand over a flag! If the flag handing over is that important, shouldnt the entourage hike up like the rest of them??

Anonymous said...

this RM17.0 million is small change. think about the millions these buffons will spend for the project somewhere in England. oouch.. am told by nades of the Sun there's not even a proper field for football. eh..to upgrade football...i almost faint.

Unknown said...

Of course it will help us because those teams will be bringing their bomohs with them. Namo, namo chi chi tiam, and there you are the next world cup champions.

Anonymous said...

SO Stephen, it looks like the RM17 million flop was just complete last night when malaysia was knocked out of the tournament after playing only 3 matches in the CYC. The maths would have that at RM5.333 million for each match. way to go azalina.

Anonymous said...

Good point Mr Godfather, tho i think the match should be RM5.666 per match and not RM5.333. But now that Malaysia is out, what now ah for this CYC as far as Malaysians are concerned. The stadiums were kosong even when malaysia was playing, so how ah. people dont care mah for this tournament, sure stadium all empty one. maybe sports ministry will ask all its staff to watch ah. how come azalina also never watch any malaysian match. can spend tax payers money so much, but cannot go and see malaysia play ah, how la like that. maybe she think malaysia will get whacked so don't come ah, wah very good lah her advisers.

Anonymous said...

Bro you heard about an nst journalist attached to sport desk apprently was summoned by the CYC Organisers, for writing the truth regards to the stadium problems in Kuching. He is the only one had the fucking balls to do it la, and they want to sue him. The ministry gave another 1.3 million for stadium renovation. Check it out bro.

Pak Zawi said...

Rocky summed it all. Azalina is making hay while the sun shines. After the England's debacle this is another one for her election coffer. Some for her pocket ofcourse.