The Football Association of Sarawak (FAS) management has said that it doesn’t mind the flare celebration made by fans after each games but said that they would like to have better control over it.
According to Facebook page ‘Crocs News Update’, the General Secretary of FAS Mr Abdullah Bin Julaihi said that he hoped that fan group leaders would work with FAS to bring the ‘flare celebration’ outside of the stadium to avoid FAS from being penalized. Abdullah was said to have compared such action to what is currently happening in Europe football clubs.
The suggestion was seconded by FAS President Datu Sudarsono Othman whom was quoted by the popular football page as saying “We understand why our fans are playing flares, which is a way of celebration, & FAS doesn’t blame this type of expression. However, not inside the stadium where we must abide by the rules.”
Sudarsono further added that FAS was prepared to meet leaders of fan support groups to ensure flares were not played in the stadium and that such celebration would be done outside the stadium gates to avoid fines from the Football Association of Malaysia.
It was reported that Sarawak was fined several times due to flares being burned in Stadium Negeri, and this has prompted FAS to take more stringent actions to curb such activity. The move has also been linked to Sarawak players avoiding their usual ‘lap of honour’ after matches, although no one has come out to confirm if it was true that FAS had issued an advice to players about doing the ‘lap of honour’ to control flare burning.
The latest update on flares is indeed interesting considering FAS was reported to have identified and met with several supporter group leaders in the past, without much success of curbing the act.
