Of ugly outfits, rivalry and royal rumblings

IN Germany, players are battling on the football pitch for honour and glory for their country in the European Championships.

There is so much competition and rivalry, but it’s all in good sporting spirit with players and fans wearing their jerseys in full national pride.

In Malaysia too, there is competition and rivalry, but there seems to be little sporting spirit. Instead, we are having a field day as drama unfolds off the pitch with bitter spats, little give-and-take and a battle royale looming.

As though that was not enough, we also have a controversy over a rather an outfit that’s being slammed as “ugly.”

In the middle of it all, is poor Datuk Hamidin Amin.

He wears two hats – he is the chef de mission of the Malaysian contingent getting ready for the Olympic Games in Paris from July 26-Aug 11. He is also the Football Association of Malaysia president. And he has had to take the flak in both positions.

When the athletes’ apparel for the Olympics was unveiled – on rather wimpy-looking mannequins – it received a massive thumbs down from the netizens. The troll on how ugly and cheap-looking the attire were, went viral.

Even former Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin joined the bandwagon to ridicule the design.

Hamidin did himself no favours by saying “what’s the point of having a good looking attire if the athletes can’t win the gold?”

He was merely trying to point out what mattered most, but it backfired big-time. And there was more flak.

Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh came to Hamidin’s defence, saying he should not be blamed for the fiasco. She is right – onus is on the Olympic Council of Malaysia and Yonex, who designed the attire.

Good sense has finally prevailed. OCM president Tan Sri Norza Zakaria announced yesterday that the design would be improved in line with the Harimau Malaya spirit.

While the issue of attires has been ironed out, the spat in football is brewing hot, with royals from Selangor and Johor stepping in.

It all started with the Malaysian Football League’s (MFL) shocking announcement on Tuesday about the penalties Selangor faced for withdrawing from playing in the Charity Shield against Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) last month.

Selangor had good reason to withdraw, as their top player Faisal Halim had been splashed with acid by unknown assailants on May 5. It was traumatising and they had asked for a postponement which was denied.

MFL instead decided they had violated their rules and meted a RM100,000 fine and docked them three points.

They can’t have any spectators too when they play JDT in the next Super League match and will also have to pay cost incurred by MFL and JDT. It did not go down well.

The Sultan of Selangor himself hit it out at the MFL, saying the decision was made “without compassion.”

A day later, MFL toned down and lowered the fine to RM60,000 and cancelled the other decisions.

As FAM president, Hamidin is seeking an audience with the Sultan to explain but so far, the Ruler is not seeing him.

To make matters worse, the Regent of Johor Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim (TMJ) is now unhappy that MFL had backed down.

In a sarcastic message on his social media posting, he said this has set a precedent where other states too can go to their royals when they are in trouble.

What is going on really? Is there some kind of invisible rivalry going on? Should the royal houses be involved? How did we come to this?

It’s time to find a solution to make the football scene thriving again and we can’t do this if decisions are made willy-nilly. MFL and FAM have a lot of soul-searching to do.

All these infighting is not doing us any good. We are not even the best in South-East Asia, not by a long shot. So, let’s not shoot ourselves in the foot.

The fraternity has to work as one, and it needs compassion and a sense of fair play.