NO SOLUTION YET TO SALARY PROBLEM

Despite FAM and MFL initiatives, five teams struggling to pay players, officials

THE shame of Malaysian football refuses to go away despite all the efforts by FAM to get rid of it. Yes, M-League players are still crying that they are not getting their salaries.

Same old sad story.

When FAM and the Malaysian Football League (MFL) came up with initiatives to privatise clubs and implemented the economic control programme (ECP), a concept adapted from Spain’s La Liga, they thought it would put an end to the problem of unpaid salaries.

This was supposed to make the teams have financial accountability. better management and administration, failing which they would not be issued with a club licence to play in the MLeague.

So, teams changed names, from FA to FC. But apart from that, pretty much nothing else has changed.

Instead of owning players, clubs owe players money. That’s the ugly truth.

The problem is so endemic in Malaysian football that getting rid of it is almost as hard as getting rid of Covid-19.

The M-League is just more than a month old, and already five teams are struggling to bank in salaries for players and officials.

The “infamous five” are said to be Super League’s Perak, Kedah, Sabah, Melaka United and Premier League’s Sarawak United.

That is a kick in the face of FAM and MFL’s privatisation and ECP efforts.

Sabah are said to be the latest to join the “problem teams” list following social media reports of their players walking off the pitch during training on Thursday, allegedly over salary issues.

MFL chief executive officer Datuk Ab Ghani Hassan said he is aware of clubs failing to pay salaries this season.

He said the MFL have not been able to implement the ECP 100 per cent this season due to teams not playing their part.

On a call by Kedah FA president Muhammad Sanusi Md Noor for a salary cap to solve the problem, Ghani said what is more important is that the clubs are aware of their financial limitations.

“If a team have only a RM4 million budget, their players’ salaries should be capped at RM60,000.”