Life goes on: Kuala Lumpur’s Sean Gan Gianneli (right) challenging for the ball with Police’s Mohd Safiee Ahmad during their Super League match last week. Although Kuala Lumpur are troubled by players’ salary issues, they continue to do their best on the pitch. — Bernama
PETALING JAYA: Kuala Lumpur have apologised to their players and coaching staff for salary delays but denied that some players had up to four months of arrears.
Instead, chief executive officer (CEO) Stanley Bernard Samuel said, only one player was owed four months of salaries, adding that it had been solved.
Stanley said they were talking to two parties to take a majority stake in the club. For now though, they are relying on small sponsorship from companies and also private loans and personal guarantees.
“Right now, the Kuala Lumpur Football Association (KLFA) are the majority shareholders. The previous major shareholder, Rinani, has gone down to 10% because they can’t take it up.
“There are no tycoons from the country willing to step in. You won’t hear about Berjaya or Air Asia investing in local clubs. You don’t see any of them knocking on our doors although we won the Malaysia Cup in 2021 and qualified for the AFC Cup final last year and FA Cup this year.
“There must be a reason why these tycoons are shying away from Malaysian football,” he said.
Berjaya’s Vincent Tan owns Cardiff City while Air Asia’s Tony Fernandes was once a major stakeholder in Queens Park Rangers, both English Championship sides.
Speaking at a media conference yesterday, Stanley said he understood the concerns of the dressing room but gave an assurance that it would be rectified.
Team captain Paulo Josue has said recently that the team’s morale was down due to the salary arrears, with some being owed four months of wages.
Stanley said yesterday that the August salary had been credited, and the club hope to settle wages for September and October as soon as possible.
“We apologise to the players and coaches. They have done tremendously well for three years. Yes, two months arrears, we know it worries the players. We are trying our best to get it on time,” he said.
“We have gone way out of our limits to get the finances going. I understand the frustration of the players. I used to be a player. When we weren’t paid and nobody turned up, I always turned up. The FA president (Khalid Samad) has also apologised.”
Stanley said some players felt the fastest way to get their money was to push the management by leaking the matter to the media.
“The toughest thing is to deliver wages on time because football is financially demanding. We have been here before, it is nothing new but we believe we will cross the line.”
Asked about the player with four months’ arrears, Stanley refused to divulge details but said he missed the first five months of the season due to injury.
“When he joined us, he was injured for five months. Usually, the club would terminate but we had discussions with our previous coach (Bojan Hodak) and decided to keep him. There was a special arrangement, we’ve paid him.
“For the first few months, the player was not here and flew back to his country for surgery. He came back and we took care of him.”
