The club building, which became the home ground for the Kuala Lumpur football team for tournaments in the 1980s, was demolished last year to make way for a new building in its place.
The cancellation comes even after the development order was issued and the project was already at the final stages of the tender.
It is learnt that 32 companies participated in the tender process last June and DBKL was in the process of evaluating the tenders before a bidder was selected. However, the project was put on hold after issues regarding land matters surfaced.
When contacted, mayor Tan Sri Mohd Amin Nordin Abd Aziz said he was forced to cancel the project because of the land issues.
Amin Nordin, who had approved the demolition of the club to make way for its expansion, is at a loss over the situation.
“It doesn’t seem fair I know, since the former sports club was there for more than four decades and it was used for sports and recreational activities by DBKL staff as well as Brickfields residents,” he said.
“The Federal Land and Mines Department (PTG) said there were issues (with the land).
“The land does not belong to DBKL, but it is still government land that was given to DBKL staff in 1952,” he said.
DBKL acting sports club president Khairul Azmir Ahmad said the land was a gift to members of the then Kuala Lumpur Municipal Club (KLMC).
“Back then, KLMC staff did not have a proper place to indulge in sports and social activities.
“It is shocking that the project was cancelled due to problems with the land. It simply does not make any sense at all,” Khairul Azmir said.
However, in an email to StarMetro, PTG integrity unit officer Nurhidayah Zakaria said the land was gazetted as public open space, indicating that it was still government land and that there were no issues whatsoever to building a new clubhouse.
Hidden hands
There are rumblings that several developers are already eyeing the land located in a prime area and former sports club president Alias Marjoh shares this sentiment.
“Let’s put it this way; it is 2.42ha of prime land and, for some people, it is a potential golden goose,” he said.
“Secondly, it was already agreed upon by the mayor to redevelop the land and build a new clubhouse. It was a done deal, otherwise we would not have proceeded with plans to demolish the club.
“Bear in mind, demolishing the old building itself cost money so DBKL must have given it a lot of thought,” Alias said.
Alias, who was the former DBKL Building Control Department director, said they had carried out the necessary land searches and everything seemed okay.
“If DBKL is not privy to certain information, then something is wrong somewhere,” he said.
Club of legends
The sports club was established on Oct 27, 1952, and was based in the Kuala Lumpur Sanitary Board (now Panggung Bandaraya) building in Jalan Raja, Kuala Lumpur.
In the early 1960s, it was decided that the club needed a proper venue to carry out its activities and that a club with sporting facilities and a football field was required.
A plot of land in Brickfields was identified for the project, and construction started with work completing in April of 1970.
On April 17, the building was officiated by Tan Sri Lokman Yusof, who was the former Federal Capital commissioner. Lokman was later appointed the first mayor of Kuala Lumpur.
Back then, many of the Kuala Lumpur football players were Kuala Lumpur municipal staff and the field was used as a training ground for tournaments.
On March 6, 1973, KLMC’s name was officially changed to Kelab Sukan DBKL (KSDBKL).
The club’s facilities and football field were used as a training ground for football legends such as Rashid Hasan, Razip Ismail, Fandi Ahmad, and Chow Siew Yai in the 1980s.
The club was particularly active in the 1980s under the patronage of late mayor Tan Sri Elyas Omar.
Elyas was president of Kuala Lumpur FA (KLFA) when it won the Malaysia Cup for three consecutive years from 1987 to 1989.
“This should never happen and the government must do something to ensure that the club is rebuilt,” said retired footballer Mohd Ivan Yusoff.
Mohd Ivan, 36, who was a central midfielder for KLFA, was nostalgic when he visited the club’s now demolished site recently.
“This is where I trained in 2006, where it all started for me and my comrades,” he reminisced.
“People in Brickfields used to come and watch us play and cheered us on by the sidelines. This type of engagement within the community is very rare today,” he said.
“With more and more football fields giving way to development, we need to preserve what is left now,” Mohd Ivan said.
Left to rot
While the redevelopment of the new sports club hangs in the balance pending the land issues, sporting equipment from the old sports club is stored in the basement of a carpark in Kompleks Tun Sambanthan, Brickfields, since last April and is now rotting away due to neglect.
Footballs, basketballs, goal posts, nets, racquets, a billiard table, documents as well as hundreds of trophies won at various national and international tournaments are slowly deteriorating.
“The building where the equipment is stored is in bad shape. There are cracks and leakages and whenever it rains, the level two basement carpark is flooded,” Alias said.
“There was a flood in the basement last week and a lot of items were damaged,” Alias said.
“The more time is wasted, the more things are going to be damaged,” he said, adding that time was of the essence.
Alias said plans for the new sports complex involved a four-storey building including a basement carpark.
It will feature a football field, and courts for futsal, basketball, and tennis.
Indoor facilities will include three badminton courts, a sepak takraw court, ping pong facilities, gym, a community hall and a cafe.
Alias added that the facilities would not only benefit the 40,000 City Hall staff and their families, but also the community of Kuala Lumpur, particularly the residents of Brickfields where the sports club is located.
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