PETALING JAYA: Regent of Johor, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim recently called for an overhaul in Malaysia’s football infrastructure, emphasising the need for a shift in mindset in order to see better progress for the sport in the country.
In a statement, Tunku Ismail said that improving football infrastructure will help raise the sport’s “quality” in Malaysia.
“I’ve been saying it for the last 10 years,” he said in an X post on Saturday (Oct 5).
The X post was also accompanied with other images of a waterlogged football field, with no information on the location of the pitch.
He said this following the cancellation of the Super League match between Perak FC and Johor Darul Takzim FC (JDT) on Saturday (Oct 5) at the Perak Stadium in Ipoh due to poor weather and pitch conditions said to be sub par.
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In a screenshot of an Instagram post attached to his X post, Tunku Ismail, who also owns JDT, criticised the “terrible” conditions of 90% of the football fields in Malaysia, adding that it is an “embarrassment”.
“Neighbouring countries have already upgraded their football infrastructures. We only talk about change but no action (made),” he added.
Tunku Ismail also claimed how local football clubs have rejected allocations offered by the Sports and Youth Ministry (KBS).
“A free football field was not accepted due to not being able to maintain it for RM200,000 a year.
“They can spend millions on players, they can even spend millions on stadium chairs (but) cannot pay RM200,000 a year for a field and players’ salaries.
“The monsoon season is upon us. How many more games have to be postponed? Wasteful and really humiliating,” he said.
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The New Straits Times reported that the Super League match between Perak and JDT was scheduled to take place at 8.15pm but was postponed by 30 minutes.
After a second inspection of the football pitch, the match was reportedly delayed even further, only to start at 9.15pm.
In the end, the match was cancelled by the Malaysia Football League.
The game was initially meant to kick off on August 17 but it was also put off due to rainy weather.
