It is an open secret that the top management of the Football Association of Sarawak (FAS) has elected YB Encik Abdullah Haji Saidol as the new president of the association. Abdullah Saidol is said to have accepted the offer, and would take helm of FAS in three months time. Until then, FAS would be under the care of Abdul Wahab Rahim, the second in command at FAS.
The move to appoint a political figure which has vast knowledge in the corporate world is believed to be highly linked to the need for FAS to move teams under them, such as the Sarawak FA football team, into privatization. All teams participating in the 2018 Malaysian League must own professional football club licences, and the Crocs is no exception.
Under the former FAS President Dato Sudarsono Osman, Sarawak earned its revival in the local football scene, but the Crocs failed miserably at Malaysia’s top flight football with the team courting the relegation zone more often than it liked.
Sudarsono tried to fix the issue by bringing in huge signings in 2016, but the results were similar, and this perhaps was an indication that he had reached his pinnacle as President of FAS.
At the recently concluded FAS Annual General Meeting (AGM), no one was daring enough to step up as president, and Sudarsono was even asked to reconsider his decision to not contest his post. Sudarsono declined, and the search of a new president went on after the AGM.
Yesterday, a Manchester United football fan named Abdullah Haji Saidol was elected, and his corporate background might give an idea of what to expect from this corporate turned political figure.
With Abdullah himself well versed in the corporate world, one can only expect that he starts bringing such sentiment to the management of FAS, with under-performing heads rolled out of the association and the team they manage, the Sarawak FA.
Such move would be like his favourite club Manchester United’s management, which has released under-performing staff members, including players, to allow for better ones to come in and strengthen the team.
The privatization of clubs in the Malaysian League will need Sarawak FA to have a proper structure, with proper people running specific task. FAS under Abdullah, needs to not only quickly work on the brand of the team, but also make Sarawak FA a proper football club beyond just being a registrated football club.
While seemingly unimportant, the logo of football club needs to be refreshed, and branding of the team needs to be well promoted to reach global audiences, if not just Malaysians. There also needs to be a distinctive difference between the FA, and the club, much like how Johor DT is a club affiliated to Johor FA.
Abdullah should also look into changing the current FAS website which is in a very sad state by probably paying professionals, (or if they can’t afford them, try Joachim at 0128086262 as he helped us build our website) to redo the whole site which is outdated and in a very sorry state, because online presence is important. Updates on social media should also be more prompt. As social media users, we believe a clubs first impression comes from a website, and FAS is not giving a great impression with what they are showing both on social media and their website.
Branding aside, Abdullah will need to also look into the current team set-up which despite a huge overhaul last season, has failed to gain any momentum in the Liga Super. He will need to look into who’s not performing and who is, and start waving the axe on the former if he wants the team to start progressing. The move should not be limited to coaches, but also players with the ‘Sarawak first’ mentality put aside to allow progress. Fans of Sarawak would have an uproar over this move, but as we said earlier, the fans need to choose for now.
When it comes to fans, Abdullah will need to carefully address certain vocal support groups which are not only influential, but able and willing to cause trouble during games. Sudarsono’s ‘soft approach’ in handling them had not seen much change with a few record breaking incidents happening since 2012. Abdullah will most certainly need to increase revenue from fans, and he would need to look into ticket prices, as well as current deals with companies such as Lea Sports Centre (LSC), Perbadanan Stadium Sarawak and airlines the Crocs use to travel. Saving a few Ringgit here and there would give the Crocs a lot more money to spend on bringing better change to the team.
There is more to be done, and it would be simple to say that in short, Abdullah needs to overhaul the Sarawak FA football team, and everyone knows his task is not easy. Abdullah will surely know that being of the president of FAS does come with their huge pool of impatient football fans that can be very critical on the smallest of issues.
But if Abdullah is serious into turning Sarawak into what his favourite football club has achieved, the issues above need to be addressed, and he needs to ignore what others are saying, and focus on what he thinks would bring good to Sarawak football.
Else, the Crocs as the Sarawak FA football team is popularly known as, would be stagnant for the next few years.
