PENNY WISE POUND FOOLISH

‘Cheaper’ imports could end up costing more

THE actions of some MLeague teams in signing up “cheaper” or more affordable foreign imports are seen as a move that can backfire.

Former FA of Malaysia (FAM) disciplinary committee chairman, Kamarudin Abdullah explained that such actions by certain teams have led to them having to deal with below par performances which affect the teams.

Therefore, he said, such a situation will definitely bring about added problems especially in having to change imports in a short span of time, and which will increase their expenditure even more.

“There are teams who discard their imports early on in the season. So where did they go wrong? Before offering such players their contracts, did the coaches really take a good look at the players to ascertain if they are quality players or not?

“What we are seeing is after about three to four matches, teams are already changing their foreign players.

“So, these teams potentially face financial problems because when such things happen, the initial budget that was planned will not be enough.

“If such a thing happens to a team that have a sizeable budget then perhaps there won’t be any problem. But sadly the problematic ones are the ones on a small budget.

“Changing foreign players involves quite a fair bit of money because teams will have to pay compensation to the players that have been dropped and spend more on new imports,” he told NST Sport.

Earlier it was reported that the buying power of M-League teams in signing imports was on the decline after a majority of the teams prefer to settle for “cheap imports” who are labelled Grade C and D.

Apart from this, Kamarudin who is also a former national player, said that the teams only have themselves to blame for such mistakes in signing up the wrong imports.

“Based on my own experience, after three or four matches, we still can’t really gauge just how good they really are because it’s just too early on. Sometimes players take longer to warm up and be able to perform.

“And the team also have to balance between the players and the fans, because at times fans demand that certain players be dropped, and this I feel is really unfair.

“It’s not just unfair to the players, but the entire team. This is because the ones responsible for the teams are the coaches, not the fans,” Kamarudin pointed out.