Tunku Imran: FAM just need to make one simple decision

(need to) make just one simple decision and a lot of their problems will be gone.”

This was stated by Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tunku Imran Tuanku Ja’afar who urged FAM to reconsider the format of the M-League, which sees the league flooded by state teams.

He feels that the states should do development work while leaving it to the clubs to focus on competitions.

“States do not enter teams for the M-League. The states’ job is to develop while the clubs’ job is to enter competitions. The states’ money doesn’t go to the salaries of players but goes to development of competitions and from there, develop the players.”

Tunku Imran said the sponsorships will eventually start coming in, and leading to the Super League becoming a franchised league based on the different stadiums around.

Tunku Imran used Blackburn and the English Premier League as examples where Blackburn started off with a pitch and a team but grew into what they are today through their community’s backing.

“It’s not the centres directing the growth but it’s the laissezfaire, the grassroots, the people around, the Kuala Pilahs of this world.

“The job of the national associations is to be the catalyst and maybe forming the competition but, not getting involved in the competition, just running it and letting the clubs do the work,” he said.

He believes that the M-League could be just as great as the EPL monetary-wise, but it will only happen with the right structure in place and it only requires one call from the FAM plus the right people and attitude to execute.

“Why don’t they make that first decision? The ones going to the meetings are the ones voting themselves out of the limelight basically and voting themselves to do the development work by doing that. That’s going to be the hard job because if the egos are there, they are not going to do it. But if they think football, they will do it,” he said.