Why the govt owes football a bail-out package of RM150mil

A few years ago, Tan Sri Dr Mohd Daud Bakar and Rosle Md Derus were not likely to cross paths.

With Dr Mohd Daud making a name for himself as a financial adviser for various institutions, including the National Bank of Oman (Oman), Amundi Asset Management (France), Bank of London and Middle East (London), BNP Paribas Najma (Bahrain), Natixis Bank (Dubai), Morgan Stanley (Dubai), Sedco Capital (Saudi and Luxembourg) and Dow Jones Islamic Market Index (New York) amongst many others, the chances of him interacting with Rosle, a former footballer earning a living as a coach, were slim at best.

That was until Dr Mohd Daud decided to diversify his interest into football. Hence their fates were intertwined.

For all his expertise in the world of financing, which Dr Mohd Daud has been generous in sharing his vast knowledge on various platforms including television, radio and books or publications, investing in football as the major shareholder of Kedah Darulaman FC is perhaps his Waterloo.

Was he not told that football has little returns on investment?

Last month, Dr Mohd Daud made an emotional plea on the club’s social media account, asking those in the state to ease his burden. It includes owing the likes of Rosle, formerly KDA FC’s Under-23 head coach, to a tune of slightly over RM100,000.

On Friday, Dr Mohd Daud announced the appointment of three local ambassadors Iqbal Mohd Noor (CEO Batu), Mohd Irshad Shafiq (CEO Bieziy) and Hanifah Md Hanafiah (Black Hanifah), who have nearly 2.3 million followers combined on TikTok.

The three of them will be tasked to whip up the interest, attend matches and attract more fans to the stadium.

Strategic partnerships or ambassadors are not the answer to KDA FC’s woes. KDA FC are not alone in coping with the crippling effect that started two decades ago, when the Government flashed the red card to tobacco money.

Football, including FA of Malaysia as the custodians of the game, paid dearly for Malaysia’s obligations under the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) that enforces the ban on tobacco’s advertising and sponsorship.

For more than three decades, football in Malaysia was fuelled by the tobacco money, with FAM getting almost RM40 million per annum to run the league and the national teams.

Not a single government linked company or multi-national giant could match the amount until broadcaster Astro came into the picture to finance a major portion of FAM’s budget from 2010 to 2014.

In 2005, for example, FAM only managed to bring in RM19,494,425, with Telekom

Malaysia contributing a mere RM8.5 million as opposed to almost RM40 million from tobacco money alone.

FAM’s source of income declined drastically from 2005 to 2010, with an average of a mere RM13 million per year from various sources.

For five years, FAM suffered a conservative estimated loss of up to RM150 million through no fault of theirs but to which the Malaysia Government had never directly compensated for.

With the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s affinity with football, FAM may consider convincing the Government to utilise the so-called “sin taxes” – levies on tobacco, alcohol, and gaming that run into billions as well as the excise duty imposed on sugar-sweetened beverages.

In a written parliamentary reply by the then Finance Minister, Lim Guan Eng in 2019, the sin tax collected from tobacco products was worth RM4.4 billion and RM3.6 billion from alcohol sales.

Simple arithmetic suggests the domestic football industry require a special financial package from the Government to rescue a league that is considered as seriously ill by the new FAM president, Datuk Mohd Joehari Mohd Ayub.

Exclude the Government’s previous and present investments on development, such as the Harimau Muda projects or the National Football Development Plan ( DP), but focus on offering a bail-out package to rescue the likes of KDA FC and Perlis FA, so that the likes of Rosle and many others can earn a living or at least be given what is due to them.

The challenge is to convert them into palatable solution so that the financial quagmire is settled once and for all.

The league can then can start afresh using “clean” money.