[ViP] Why TMJ should not be the FAM President

Come 25th May, all eyes will be on the ‘hottest seat’ in Malaysian football which would be contested by three main royalties namely the Crown Prince of Johor, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim (TMJ), the prince of Pahang, Tengku Abdullah and the Sultan of Pahang, Sultan Ahmad Shah as they lock horns in an election to win the coveted post as the President of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM). If you are not aware, Sultan Ahmad Shah is the father of Tengku Abdullah.

At SarawakCrocs.com, we believe that calling names and creating riots in stadiums is not the only way to make a point as we put our say in writing such as here.  We feel this is more civilized, but that is just us, perhaps.

Let us begin by telling you “why TMJ should not be the president of the FAM“.

To be honest, we could only think of two reasons which makes TMJ a poor candidate for FAM’s presidency.

One was the fact that he has, as the current president of Persatuan Bolasepak Negeri Johor (PBNJ), failed to control his supporters. Almost every game which features either JDT I or JDT II, which is under the purview of PBNJ, has record of fan trouble with massive police support needed to avoid any possible trouble. The lack of discipline among JDT’s supporters is of course not an easy thing to tackle, but it is our believe that such behavior comes from the fact that some of the fans feel that TMJ has made them ‘invisible’ to the law.

Another thing which worries us is the fact that TMJ does tend to be a little impatient with results and this can be proven by the huge head coach turn-over in PBNJ. While this trait does worry us, it is something Malaysia has been doing before K Rajagopal was appointed as Malaysia’s head coach, hence why we do not see much of an issue here.

But those two reason are the only ones we could come up about why he should not be the president of FAM because fact is, we really think TMJ would make a lot of difference as the new president.

That said, here are five of our points on ‘Why TMJ should be president‘:

#1 FRESH, NEW & MOTIVATED
We know all three royalties are motivated to bring Malaysian football to greater heights, but TMJ presents something fresh to the scene of Malaysian football. He is young, and highly motivated to see Malaysian football go to greater heights, and we believe that he has the capability of doing so. Take a look at what he had done to Johor in the past five years? From whipping boys, Johor now is considered a power house in Malaysian football!  We are not saying Sultan Ahmad and Tengku Abdullah do not have eagerness to raise the level of football in Malaysia, but given the fact they were in charge for over 30 years, we do feel there is a need for fresh ideas, instead of continuity of what has already been done.

#2 FREE AND UNATTACHED
We know Tengku Abdullah seems to be the more ‘experienced one’ if compared to TMJ, but Tengku Abdullah’s father, the current president of FAM, whom has also held the presidency post for more than 30 years, gives the eager prince unwanted baggage in his bid for presidency. We say this because a good son would be bound to follow his father’s advice at best, and we do see Sultan Ahmad having ‘an invincible hand’ if his son was elected. TMJ on the other hand is free to do what he wants and needs for a complete overhaul of FAM.

#3 WEALTH
Recently, TMJ did reveal that he would pump money into the local associations shall he be president, and we believe he has the ability to do so. We know comparing his effort to build up Johor football is peanuts if compared to Malaysian football, but then again, it does no harm to give him a try and see if he can “walk the talk.” Regardless, the Johor Sultanate is known to have abundance influence and deep pockets, and so we do not see any problem of TMJ keeping his promise.

#4 FOREIGN INFLUENCE
Look at Johor, and JDT, and see what has changed in the past five years. Not only have they changed their name, but they have also improved their facilities to be among the best in the region (We are not talking about Malaysia level no more). Fans of JDT have flocked the stadium and nearly 70% of their tickets are held by season tickets holders. On top of that, you can see how TMJ has brought in the best to re-energize his team, and introduced several measures which we see could generate enough income to sustain PBNJ financially in a long run.  All this is a result of proper management and influence from the top teams in the world.  Sadly, the current FAM is only looking at its own backyard, and looks comfortable to be the best in South East Asia.  That said, they are influenced by local quality, and ambition, and hence why we feel influence from outside leagues will not be something bad at all for Malaysia. It gives us  higher benchmark to ‘grow up’. – The ‘Malaysian standard’ benchmark has to stop.

#5 PROPER DEVELOPMENT PLANS & AMBITION
One thing we love about TMJ’s campaign for presidency is his vision for Malaysian football. He has promised better referees by looking into creating and funding professional referee and bringing the status of the Malaysian League to a higher grade, compared to the current Grade D it suffers at the moment. He also has set his eye on preparing more funds to help football associations build their grass root academies, which is something long overdue in Malaysia.  All these promises aren’t exactly difficult to attain,  but there is no news of any other aspirations coming from of both Sultan Ahmad Shah and Tengku Abdullah when it comes to the development of football in Malaysia. With all due respect, it does seem like TMJ is the only one having a manifesto, with his opponents clueless of what they will do when they do win.

We also read in a local paper that the former committee member of Malaysia’s development committee, Hassan Tun Sulaiman gave an opinion that TMJ is ‘too young’ to lead FAM and needs to learn the ‘system’ before he is elected, but for us at SarawakCrocs.com, that is not what is needed.

The fact is, the system of football in Malaysia is already broken, and we should not teach someone to ‘learn it’, but rather bring in someone new, motivated and willing (like TMJ) to overhaul the whole system, and make Malaysian football grow to be one of the best in the region, if not the world.

That said, we are joining the chorus of Malaysian football fans by backing TMJ as the new president of FAM although we know that what we say carries little weight in the election, but at least you know now that the whole team at SarawakCrocs.com believes that TMJ can bring change to FAM.

If he fails to change FAM shall he be elected, well, at least we tried someone else other than those coming from the same ‘root’.

p/s: This is not the official view of the Football Association of Sarawak (FAS). Just in case you were confused.

Photo used was taken from soccernet.com