The verdict of the disciplinary committee of The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) over the crowd violence in Darul Mamkur Stadium shocked everyone who was expecting FAM to be consistent in their disciplinary verdicts.
Despite being telecast live over national television, with more than a dozen fans reported injured, and some of Malaysia’s famous local football pundits saying that the incident ‘sunk Malaysian football into a new low’, PFA escaped with a mere RM100,000 fine, and the possibility of making not less than RM600,000 in revenue when they face Johor Darul Takzim (JDT) in the replay game at a neutral venue at Bukit Jalil.
The decision couldn’t be any more shocking, particularly for Sarawakians who were fined much more severely last season after two Federal Reserved Unit (FRU) personnel were attacked by fans.
The Crocs were fined RM49,000 with a four-match closed-door ban, which was later reduced to a one closed-door ban after an appeal.
This year, FAM yet again warned Sarawak they could face such fine again after the Sarawak-Kelantan FA Cup quarter finals, saw the game being halted for ten minutes due to foreign objects being pelted into the pitch.
Earlier in January also, FAM threatened to force Kelantan to play behind closed doors, after The Red Warriors were fined RM62,500 for crowd misbehaviour in the Super League tie against JDT.
Both incidents were however nothing compared to what happened in Kuantan last weekend, and the verdict of the disciplinary committee of FAM to in fact give PFA even more revenue by moving the game to a larger venue is nothing short of a joke.
With that said, the Crocs and its fans have every reason to be dismayed with FAM which over the years, have again and again asserted to the masses how the national football body is favoring certain teams, yet victimizing teams like Sarawak in their policy and disciplinary judgement.
If history was to be taken into account, the Crocs are indeed among the least favored by FAM, with policy changes seemingly always to have affected the team on the negative side with the Crocs failing to hold onto the Super League after FAM downsized the league out of the blue.
Nonetheless, FAM has indeed showed everyone which team it favors most with the ‘yo-yo’ decisions it keeps making, hence making it simply understandable why fans are hanging banners of disgust over the national football body around the country.
