Can MFL’s ‘no-nonsense approach’ overcome ‘negative mindset’?

THE popular song Will

You Ever Learn by Filipino band Typecast in 2006 best describes the errant teams in the M-League who are continuously sanctioned by the Malaysia Football League (MFL) for breaking rules.

These thick-skinned teams, instead, blame everyone else except themselves when they are sanctioned by MFL, whose only agenda is to turn the M-League into one of the most prestigious tournaments in Asia.

On Monday, the stakeholders grumbled when MFL imposed a 50 per cent annual grant deduction against seven teams who failed to comply with the MLeague

registration deadline.

For the record, Super League teams are supposed to receive an annual grant of RM3 million each while RM1.5 million is allocated to each Premier League club.

However, following Telekom Malaysia’s withdrawal as a sponsor, the funds have not been disbursed yet but MFL, under chairman Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, have promised to settle them soon.

Supposedly, MFL will announce a new sponsor soon and once it is confirmed, the annual grants could see an increase depending on the total sponsorship and commitment.

For some teams, the annual grant constitutes between 10 and 30 per cent of their total expenditure but for some clubs, they rely almost entirely on it to pay salaries and to cover other costs.

The affected teams are Super League’s Kuala Lumpur, Felda United and Melaka, and Premier League’s Kelantan, Police, Sarawak and Penang.

KL, Kelantan, Penang, Police and Sarawak were also slapped with transfer ban in the second transfer window from May 2-29 for being repeat offenders in completing their registration.

These five teams together with Melaka were also ordered to submit their financial documents for the 2019 season including documents showing that they have settled the players’ salary arrears. The teams will be docked three points if they do not comply.

However, for all the affected teams, they have the room to appeal and get their deductions reduced.

MFL’s sanctions are seen as harsh by many but the organisation are only imposing a forced change in mentality among teams in order for the M-League to flourish.

The 50 per cent deduction may not be a rational thing to do considering the negative economic outlook and the difficulties faced by some teams in securing sponsors.

Basically, MFL have laid out a structured plan for teams to achieve every step towards getting a club licence and also to comply with financial rules.

On Jan 1, MFL chief executive Kevin Ramalingam disclosed that they are adopting La Liga’s formula in assisting clubs in relevant areas.

Among the changes are on club management, licensing, commercialisation and financial management procedures (relating to the transfer of players).

The important aspect MFL will be adopting from La Liga is the formula to determine the budgets of each team. It will be implemented next year or in 2021.

Spanish teams are required to submit their respective budgets for the new season to La Liga for approval. La Liga will then determine how much each team can spend.

MFL’s goal is to have only quality teams who are financially stable in the league.

For many, this will be impossible to achieve as 90 per cent of teams in the M-League rely on government funding. And what makes it worse is some manage their teams based on verbal pledges from sponsors. The sponsorship pledges are not crystalised on a piece of paper and signed off.

Many teams have ceased operations over the years due to financial constraints because most depend on only one source of sponsorship.

So, the 50 per cent annual grant deduction on the seven teams could affect some of them.

MFL, however, should only consider that teams with a healthy bank balance play in the Super League. If they have to reduce the number of teams from the current 12 then they should do it.

Of course, MFL will need to come up with a solution to comply with the Asian Football Confederation regulations in regard to the league duration, but this move could end salary and other issues in the M-League for good.

I will end my column with the opening lyrics of the song by Typecast, which I dedicate to MFL:

So what’s the point in all of this? When you will never change.

The days have passed. The weather’s changed.

Should I be sorry? Could I be sorry? I did it all, all for you.

Hoping you would see.