Latest news with #SadekMustaffa
New Straits Times
23-07-2025
- Sport
- New Straits Times
Can Harimau Malaya do what the Southern Tigers just did?
KUALA LUMPUR: Can the national football team do what Johor Darul Ta'zim (JDT) just did? Go to Spain, the land of European champions, and play quality friendly matches against good teams there. Sports critic Sadek Mustaffa said the national team should get the Regent of Johor, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, with his global connections, to help out in this area. "We need to think outside the box, and it's time to use Tunku Ismail's global connections to secure quality opponents. If we cannot get top nations, we should look at playing top football clubs. "We know that during international breaks most clubs will lose their players, but I think clubs in Japan and Saudi Arabia have top quality players who are no longer internationals," said Sadek. He felt that Harimau Malaya, who lack matches against top sides, have already made a bad move by withdrawing (due to logistical and player availability issues) from the Central Asian Football Association (CAFA) Nations Cup from Aug 29-Sept 8. Sadek said the national team, who have risen to world No. 125, need to play quality matches against top clubs to maintain their momentum. He added that it would be a waste for the foreign-based national players — Facundo Garces, Imanol Machuca, Rodrigo Hidalgo — to spend hours travelling to join Harimau Malaya only to play low-quality matches. FAM announced on Wednesday that Malaysia will play friendly matches against Singapore and Palestine in September. "What's the point of playing matches that are not going to help our team improve? We have good players based abroad, and they would spend more than 24 hours travelling to play these low- quality matches. "The national team management already blundered by pulling out of the Nations Cup." Sadek said the Nations Cup withdrawal should be a lesson for FAM and the national team management.
New Straits Times
07-05-2025
- Sport
- New Straits Times
Critic warns M-League football fans will turn to other sports
KUALA LUMPUR: The M-League is in danger of being labelled as a tainted product. That means it can lead to fans drifting away from the league and sponsors not having anything to do with it. There have been repeated sanctions from Fifa on M-League clubs, and this is tarnishing the image of Malaysian football. In recent years, the world body has slapped transfer bans on nine Malaysian clubs — Terengganu FC, Kelantan Darul Naim, Kelantan FC, Kelantan FA, PT Athletic FC, Sarawak United, Perlis, Melaka United FC, and Perlis — over financial issues and regulatory breaches. Sports observer Sadek Mustaffa said these continuous issues besetting the M-League will turn both the fans and potential sponsors away. "Issues like this affect the M-League's market value. "How would the sponsors feel with these issues? This happens almost every year," said Sadek. "The broadcast value (for matches) will be affected too and all this will result in lesser income to M-League clubs. "Foreign players will also be reluctant to play in the M-League due to this bad image." He warned that the fans will shift to other sports, and football popularity will go down and the football industry will be impacted. Sadek said the FA of Malaysia (FAM) and the Malaysian Football League (MFL) need to improve their efforts to safeguard Malaysia's football image. "The stakeholders need to be accountable for this problem, they need to look at the gate collections or fan attendance at the stadiums. "The crowd is no more like before and it's dwindling every season," said Sadek. "If you look at the overall numbers, it's not really positive. Even at the last Malaysia Cup final in Bukit Jalil, the tickets were not sold out. "FAM and MFL need to look at this seriously, they need to come out with measures to deal with these issues. "Clubs just cannot be repeat offenders, there's club licensing but we still have the problem of unpaid wages. "Things need to change with monitoring and enforcement on errant teams."
