Malaysian football teams need to ditch their subsidy mentality and federal and state governments need to rearrange their priorities in spending tax money.
Prime Minister Najib Razak has been particularly charitable during the Christmas season, donating a total of RM5 million to the cash-strapped Perlis and Kelantan football teams, according to media reports. One day before Christmas, Bernama reported that Najib had donated RM1 million to the Northern Lions, which had just won promotion to the Malaysia Premier League (MPL) for the 2016 season. Earlier in the month, Kelantan FA chairman Annuar Musa told Sinar Harian that Najib had channelled RM4 million to the Malaysia Super League (MSL) side.
Meanwhile, the Terengganu state government has always been spending big not just on football, but also hockey, cycling and other sports.
But before only one side of the political divide gets blamed, we must be aware that states held by Pakatan are also guilty of the same wastage. For example, the PKR-led Selangor government in October revealed that it would be allocating RM23 million for the Selangor football team in 2016.
Considering the current economic climate in the country, these actions are nothing short of reckless. The funds released by Najib to Perlis and Kelantan are ultimately a waste considering that the government raises tariffs and abolishes subsidies almost every week now.
No one is denying that football has its place in the grand scheme of things, but there are more pressing needs in a host of areas.
In the case of Selangor, although it is the most affluent state in the country, the 23 million would certainly be useful in developing tourism, for instance, or providing housing assistance for many of the state’s disenfranchised.
Furthermore, the amounts allocated do not reflect the mediocrity of Malaysian football. Despite massive funds, the farthest that Malaysian club sides can hope to reach are the AFC Cup and the domestic cups, whereas the national team only had that one 2010 AFF Cup title to shout about. For the record, Malaysia is now ranked 170th place out of 209 countries in the Fifa ranking.
On top of this, there is also an element of unfairness in the channelling of state and federal funds for sports. In the case of Najib’s “donations,” he is using funds contributed by Malaysians from the whole country to prop up two teams. Why should a fan of the Red Giants, for instance, allow his tax contribution to be used to fund the Kelantan team?
It is also unfair to those who don’t enjoy Malaysian football. Why should they foot the bill for something they don’t care about? Football and sports are as useful to them as the two pandas in the National Zoo are to most Malaysians.