I think Malaysia is one of the few countries in the world (or the only one?) that institutionalizes, and even celebrates racial divides. From political parties to football teams.

I can imagine how awful it'd sound for an "All Whites Football Club of Canada" or a "All Black Basketball Club".

On the other hand - our country's history has been shaped along racial lines for many years but it'd be good to move on from that.

compare to education, school, newspaper, bussiness asociation, public and private sector, racism in Malaysian football is not that mainstream to be an issue. Historically our top football competition still base on geographic territory.

Beside, my suggestion for MCFA to also produce a team more of an effort to pull them to come and play together insted of us just playing with ourselves.

This post has been edited by aressandro10: Nov 3 2010, 05:44 PM

Melayu Semenanjung + MCFA + MIFA


= FAM (Football Association Of Malaya)




This post has been edited by HangPC2: Nov 3 2010, 05:51 PM

fixed..

It's nothing different that in other countries, just that we are not used to them either. For example the best Brazillians footballers are always almost comes exclusively from the poor black population. Only some from the higher elites whites have been involved, the most famous one is obviously Kaka.

Even in England, most of their football players comes from the lower income group, which is why years ago there was a stigmata against them, citing that they are usually rowdy, unlearned people. Only recently does this does not apply anymore.

For Malaysian, there is a certain mindset for taking football as a career. I have quite a lot of Chinese friends taking up sports, and while talking to them, most of their parents discourage them really from taking up football, since pay is low, and the chance of getting injured is high. It's not about them not having national pride, but looking at the bigger picture, playing football in Malaysia is not really a good choice for them financially and health wise.

But team wise, this is the first time I heard of an all Malay team trying to get into the Malaysian league. Sure, we also have the Piala Emas Raja Raja, which is exclusively to Malays, (MCFA and MIFA also has similar competition IIRC), but usually it's for state teams to blood youngsters.

I have nothing against them, but I do feel that it's not really about showing unity of races in Malaysia either. Oh well. Whatever floats their boat

Its not just one factor Duke. Its a combination of a little bit of this and a little bit of that that create this complete mess.



But the stigma on most parent's mind is that football is a poor people's game. They do not know that top football player's on Malaysia earn 25k a month with an education of a bricklayer or and DVD seller. THEY DO NOT KNOW. Because of that they subdue their child's development from taking that route from the early age.

They do be more permissive with basketball. I think this is just simply because you people are good at sports that values slim lightweight physique and excellent eye-hand coordination (ping-pong, badminton, basketball, kung fu). And also because, like other minority sports, basketball in Malaysia is more of a interest and hobby issue instead of a professional one. This is not good enough for football.



i never have the pleasure to be mixed school with Chinese. But reports that i receive imply that football development in Chinese vernacular school are not that prioritized. this can be seen in inter-school match results. Since there are no push for development, we will not know if there are talent or not .



The interest is there. But if the target from beginning is to just be good enough socially, the improvement rate would not be enough for you to make it professionally. Even if you do, consideration from other factor would deter you from making that leap of faith.




This is why we must create a team specifically for the Chinese and the Indians. So that they can play and grow in comfortable area, safe from this perceived sports politics.

But i do think racism in Malaysian football is exaggerated. Every team would not have an Indian and Chow Chee Weng, Joseph Kallang Tie and Malaysian Cup finalist Ching Hong Aik would not played a key role in respective teams if racism is truly widespread.


Yes the idea has their repercussions. But i truly frustrated with this dragging status quo and want something done differently for a change. Even though we will not be playing together in a same team, at least we will playing together in a same field. Compare to the current environment where we shield each others away and live in separate worlds, thats good enough as a start is it not?

This post has been edited by aressandro10: Nov 3 2010, 08:05 PM

imagine this malay futbol team vs chinese futbol team in M league..i juz cant imagine what the supporters from both sides gonna trade their insult at each other...recipe for racial disaster...bad bad bad move from FAM!!

True, but it isn't "officially" recognized to the point that a "Black Brazilian Footballers Club" is formed, and then approved by the Brazilian FA!

I highly doubt that...

Atheletic Bilbao only took basque spain players.. its their right as a assoication to do so..

Mohamedan Sporting Club (Kolkata) = Indian Muslim Sports Club

Bangkok Christian Collage FC = Thai Christian FC

betul, jgn sempitkan fikiran anda. Bila kt Malaysia orang buat kelab specific untuk satu bangsa je kita dh melatah ckp rasis la. Padahal kat negara lain pn sme je, dh ada bnyk kelab2 mcm ni. Contoh terbaik, Athletic Bilbao. Main kt Spanish Primera Liga lg tu. Policy dia ambk pemain muda dan beli pemain yg berbangsa Basque. So, ape salahnye dgn kelab Melayu Malaysia ni? Bila kita x tau suatu perkara 2 kaji dlu jgn buat spekulasi lg2 kaitkn dgn rasis.

LOL'd




i never blame MALAYSIAN chinese. yeah, it's true that our M-League won't ensure them a bright future. every season, must got 2-3 teams pull out, have financial problems, unsettled EPF etc.

but i hate SINGAPOREAN chinese. they are the majority race. i hate to admit this but frankly (uurrgghhh) Singapore's S-League are ranked as one of the top 10 leagues in Asia which means the salary cap is quite high but still they don't want to play football. shame on them really

Singapore's league attendance and overall interest are not much better than M-League. But their admistration are top notch as expected. And although the marketing do not bringing the result, you cannot blame them for the effort to at least do it properly..

Well S-League is there also for the betting.

This post has been edited by linkinstreet: Nov 4 2010, 08:18 AM

During my schooling days, we were looking for donations to buy land and build more classrooms. A football field seems like a luxury item. Basketball court and pingpong table seems to be much cheaper and lower maintenance cost. This is just one of the reason why only few Chinese plays football?

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Added on November 4, 2010, 8:28 amAmbil yang jernih, buang yang keruh. Tak semestinya bila orang buat, kita ikut jugak. Saya rasa kita perlu benchmark perkara yang baik. Kita ada pilihan.

Our country is so divided that every action counts. We can't just shouting 1Malaysia and the other end, we are doing something that against it.

This post has been edited by xgineer: Nov 4 2010, 08:28 AM

Yes. I think so too. One of the many reasons as i list out in earlier post. The question is, how do we move on even with that handicap still cannot be resolve?

This post has been edited by aressandro10: Nov 4 2010, 10:02 AM

Why are we bringing & talking about race here ? So what ? The Malays decided to have a football association & a football team. The Chinese also have that, the Indians also have that. It's not like any of teams are dominating the sport & promoting disunity among Malaysians. There are other much bigger leagues with multiracial members. Granted that, not many Chinese wanna play football. Let them be. There must be a reason for that & it's most likely will be about money or job security rather than discrimination or whatever.

Nowadays a lot of Malays also play basketball. So what ? How many Malay players U see in the national basketball team ? How many Indians ? Even the sole Indian player also went to a Chinese school (I know him personally). Do U see UMNO or any Malay associations bringing this up ? Again, it's not about racist or discrimination or anything like that. It's just about choice. U wanna play, just play la. I've played basketball & I've played in a team where I'm the only Malay. & I've played in tournaments where we were the only all Malay team. About the salary of basketball players, U hv to understand the popularity of the sport here. How many basketball arenas that charge spectators do we have in the country ? How strong is the league ? Who is the sponsor ? Dun forget that before Air Asia came in, Petronas was the main sponsor for MABA. The MABA stadium & hostel have Petronas money all over it. It's not about discrimination. Chinese ppl dun wanna come & pay to watch a Chinese dominated sport. Do we blame UMNO for that ?

We dun need this kinda talk here. Unless one of the MCFA or MIFA qualified on merit to play in the M-League & suddenly FAM dun allow it, which is highly unlikely to happen, then there's sumthing wrong somewhere.

I rest my case.

This is true. I myself had no idea local professional footballers earn as much as they do. I've not heard of anyone earning RM 25K but I do know that Indra Putra earns a salary of RM 16K a month. I suppose that if you factor in bonuses and incentive, the figure will inflate somewhat. The same should apply to any other sport though with the exception of maybe golf which is commonly played by those from the higer enchelon. Ping-Pong, Basketball, Motor Racing (not F1), and to an extent, even badminton are not lucrative if you compare them against working your way up the corporate ladder or start an SME. I know that "badminton" probably stood out but I've a friend who is a journalist and he told me that BAM pays very little, as low as RM 2K a month. The players then have to earn their own money which is why you see someone like Lee Chong Wei playing in every major badminton tournament whilst Lin Dan competes mainly in the local China circuit.

My point is that the stigma isn't limited to football, but any sport in the country.



I'd have to agree that basketball isn't as developed as football. We don't have a local professional league nor do we have professional players. As I know it, we only have the KL Dragons who are currently playing in the ABL and even then our standards are so low, we would be swept of the court if not for our foreign imports. Not too long ago, we had the Petronas Cup but unless MABA forms a professional league, it will never be a career.

Back to football. I'm not as in touch with the local scene but from what I can see, moving the league from semi-pro to pro status has done little to advance the standards. In fact I think we were higher ranked back in the days of Zainal Abidin, Dollah Salleh, P.Ravindran, Khairul Azman, Matlan Marjan, etc. Back then we had foreign imports like Selangor's Karel Stromsik who played in the 1982 World Cup, Abbas Saad, Tony Cottee, David Roecastle, Chris Kiwomya, and other international players who have actually earned caps. You could say that as a semi-pro leagues, football was an interest? Players had day jobs in various banks as I recall. When we turned professional, I gather the goal was to take football seriously and maybe it's early days but there has been little improvement from what I can see.

The best way to convince the Chinese to get back into the game would be for standards to improve. I know it looks like a chicken and egg scenario but it's marketing 101. If you want to sell someone a product, which in this case is football, you need to provide quality content and package it.



During my days in Coed, there were equally as many Malay and Chinese football players in our school team, with Indians being the minority. It may be a stereotype but I noticed commonalities in each race. The Malays had better technique and skill, the Chinese were industrious and had high work ethic, the Indians were hard as steel and could run rings round the rest. I know it's far fetched but this is why I truly believe an integrated Malaysian team will bring us forward and I can understand the importance of getting the Chinese interested in the game again. I think what you mentioned about development is a common problem not just as secondary but also primary level. We do not have proper coaches to nurture young talent. Our school team coach was our PE player and god only knows what his creds are.

In terms of improving beyond just kicking a ball around, it's like I mentioned on the other thread, I see organisations offering kids these opportunities but unfortunately, it comes at a price. Football Focus for example is a setup that has tied up with Tottenham Hotspurs. They offer kids the opportunity of having a 2 week trial in England with view of staying in the academy for months depending on how they progress. Some years back I met the owners of the BFA, or Brazilian Football Academy. I believe the principles were Juninho (of Middlesbrough fame) and former Southamption coach, Simon Clifford. Both of them introduced Brazilian skills and 'futebol de salao' to kids from countries like Malaysia, Hong Kong, Nigeria, Bermuda, USA, Thailand, Australia, Canada, Holland, Mexico, etc. One notable EPL graduate from this programme is Micah Richards. I truly believe that in our current climate, we have to take kids out of the country for them to develop overseas but the setback it that rural folk can't afford to enroll their kids in such programmes. When I say "take the kids out of the country", I don't mean for 2 or 3 month stints but a few years. You can't learn much in just a few months, it just doesn't work that way. Kids overseas start proper training from what? 9-12 years of age? Perhaps the FAM can work on developing some kind of scholarship programme with similar football schools/academies?

Well it's like you said earlier, the Chinese just don't see football as being a lucrative career so this needs to first be addressed. If it isn't then any Chinese team you send will comprise of bankers, lawyers, insurance agents or some other blue or white collared worker looking for a hobby.

I believe the same applies for any Basque team like Real Sociedad or Osasuna? I may be wrong. I see similarities but also differences. We are a country of diverse races and hence it's only expected that some degree of racism will exist. With Spain, the differences are more politically driven.

The S-League is small and you can't fault people for having bigger ambitions in life. Please also consider life after football. Whilst in places like England there are heaps of opportunities ranging from coaching to being a TV pundit, there is little options here. Most open an SME but without any business experience, a lot fail.

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Added on November 4, 2010, 4:44 pmBecause the topic itself carries racial connotations? Your questions are contradictory. Do you not see why there is talk about race, or do you not care? I don't know what you took out of earlier posts, but the commonality I see is that in line with our PMs vision to promote 1Malaysia and with racial tensions at a high, it may not be right time to introduce any singular raced based team, party or whatever. Yes the Chinese and Indians already have teams - past tense. Is it wrong to have a team? No. Is it timely? Not in my opinion. I'd much rather the focus be on trying to get the Chinese involved in the sport again and have a truly multiracial team as we used to back in the day. Football has brought peace to nations if only for a day. Iraq is proof of this. Imagine the kind of impact watching a multiracial Malaysian team winning say the Asian games would have. It may revive interest in the local league. It may revive interest in the game amongst the Chinese. It may promote racial harmony once again. I hate the word 'racial tolerance' although it is used commonly. We should not have to tolerate one another. We should like to live with one another.

This is what.



I see you deviating and insuniating that the reason this topic is being discussed is because the Chinese feel it's wrong for the Malays to have a team. If this is so, look at the rationalisation I provided earlier. On the topic of basketball, I had friends playing in the non-Chinese league. If the Chinese had wanted to kick up a fuss, it would have happened. It isn't about a race wanting to have a team. If you see absolutely no relevance in what I posted, then fine.



I've played basketball as well, and in tournaments like the Sultan's Cup and yes, it is dominated predominantly by the Chinese. You are right about the development of basketball in the country but no one is arguing otherwise. Basketball was used by me as an example of a low paying job. I'm sorry but what is the connection with UMNO here? I'm not sure what anyone else has said but I used UMNO in the context of BN, and in that example I said that although each race has it's own party e.g. UMNO, MCA and MIC, they are all parked under a united banner that is BN. Hence it would be weird if you ask me to have an all Malay, Chinese or Indian team in the Super League, which is our national flagship football league.

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Added on November 4, 2010, 4:49 pmI've highlighted what I see as key words. They play in their own countries so if there is any contraversy, it'd have to do with religion and not race. I don't see much religious tension in those countries but you cannot deny that there is racial tension in our country.

This post has been edited by Duke Red: Nov 4 2010, 04:49 PM

Haven't been reading/watching the news since, oh, the last 10~20 years?