Al-Fatihah buat Allahyarham Kapt (B) Abdul Halim Hamid

Allahyarham Kapten Abdul Halim Hamid (kiri) mengadili perlawanan kumpulan A Piala Dunia di antara Maghribi dan Norway di Stade de la Mosson, Montpellier, Perancis pada 10 Jun 1998.

Allahyarham Kapten (B) Abdul Halim Abdul Hamid, antara pegawai perlawanan bola sepak negara yang pernah melakar sejarah tertinggi apabila menjadi sebahagian kemeriahan pusingan akhir Piala Dunia 1998 di Perancis, menghembuskan nafasnya yang terakhir, malam tadi.

Blogger Rizal Hashim, berkongsi penghormatan kepada Allahyarham, di sini.

Allahyarham yang ku kenali sepanjang tempoh perkhidmatanku di Persatuan Bola Sepak Malaysia (FAM), adalah seorang yang cintakan bidang kepengadilan.

Pencapaian tertingginya, sehingga masih dikekalkan dalam kelompok terakhir pegawai-pegawai perlawanan hingga ke final Piala Dunia 1998, tidak pernah dijadikan Allahyarham selaku bahan untuk berbangga.

Allahyarham pernah berkongsi kepadaku, betapa pencapaian itu harus dilihat sebagai langkahan awal untuk nanti ada pula pegawai perlawanan negara yang akan mengadili di tengah padang, lantas mengatasi pencapaiannya di garisan tepi.

Buat keluarga Allahyarham, ku doakan semoga tabah merelakan pemergian Allahyarham pada bulan Ramadan Al Mubarak ini.

Semoga rohnya ditempatkan di kalangan orang-orang soleh dan sentiasa mendapat perlindungan serta petunjuk daripada-NYA. Al-Fatihah.

'Perubahan tanpa sedar' FAM

Tiada sesiapapun dalam dunia yang mampu menganggap dirinya sempurna. Baik dalam apa bidang sekalipun, pasti ada yang lebih baik daripada kita.

Lantas, dalam memperkatakan mengenai bola sepak negara, Persatuan Bola Sepak Malaysia (FAM) seharusnya juga mengambil iktibar sebegitu. Jangan hanya menganggap diri terlalu handal, terlalu sempurna, kerana banyak lagi yang mungkin kita tidak tahu, sebenarnya.

Paling terbaru ialah keputusan 'ubah tapi tak jadi ubah' Format Liga Malaysia untuk tempoh lima tahun berikutnya. Dengan akhirnya memilih untuk tidak berubah, FAM - dalam lebih tepat lagi, Jawatankuasa Pertandingan Tempatan serta Sekretariat FAM yang menerajui keputusan itu - sebenarnya berubah secara tidak sedar.

Paling utama, ia perubahan ketara apabila 'mengingkari' arahan Tuanku Presiden yang mahukan supaya Liga Malaysia musim baru menyaksikan rombakan besar-besaran. Jarang sebelum ini, ada yang begitu 'terang-terang berani menyanggah' saranan pemimpin nombor satu itu!

Satu lagi yang kebelakangan ini kerap ditimbulkan ialah masalah membabitkan Jabatan Pengadil FAM. Saya sebenarnya enggan mengulas lanjut, tambahan pula pernah dituduh punya 'agenda peribadi' ketika tiada pula bukti dikemukakan untuk menyokong tuduhan sebegitu.

Tetapi daripada perkhabaran yang diterima, ada unsur 'kronisme' yang ketara kerana dikatakan pengadil tidak lulus ujian kecergasan, kerap kali diberi tugasan ketika ada lain yang lulus, tidak pula diberi perhatian.

Saya akui bahawa tiada bukti nyata. Kerana itu, saya anggap perkhabaran itu sebagai desas desus. Tetapi pada masa sama, jika tiada angin, masakan pokok bergoyang. Terpulanglah kepada peneraju FAM, sama ada pucuk kepimpinannya ataupun peneraju sekretariat, untuk menelitinya.

Paling penting diingat, sekali lagi, ialah kita bukannya sempurna. Mungkin ada yang terlepas pandang!

Ikuti pandangan rakan saya, Eric Samuel, di The Star, di sini.

SAM have a home

Sportswriters Association of Malaysia now have a blog, sammalaysia.blogspot.com.

Hope members can utilise the blog to air any views, comments, feedback and inputs for the betterment of SAM.

Passionate Rexy

Rexy Mainaky is an illustrious name in world badminton. As a player, he has won all the major titles – world championship, Thomas Cup, Olympics gold and countless others.

I started to get close to him when I was assigned the badminton beat in early 2006. I do believe we have a good friendship, based on mutual trust and respect – knowing when to push him for stories and when to give him space whenever he wants to be left alone.

Rexy is also an emotional man. Few can forget his public show of sadness when his players failed to contribute points in the team event during the 2006 Asian Games in Doha. Trust me when I say that it was not an act, but genuine tears from someone who was truly hurting inside.

I got in touch with him yesterday, our first contact after his two double pairs were eliminated from semi-finals of the just concluded World Championship in Hyderabad.

I could sense a tinge of regrets, maybe even disappointments, from the tone of his SMSes. Indirectly, I could conclude that Rexy feels all the hard work put in by him and his assistants were being ridiculed, undermined and questioned by some quarters in Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) and National Sports Council (NSC).

I know Rexy is not someone who likes to ‘create trouble’. He would prefer that his work, through the performance of his players, be the judge. But the latest episode, if there are some truths in it, is indeed troubling.

Maybe top people in BAM or NSC should take a look at this.

First meeting SAM

The new executive committee of the Sportswriters Association of Malaysia (SAM) will be meeting for the first time this Thursday.

Would appreciate feedback and suggestions from all parties to help us reenergise SAM.

Thank you

Thank you, Bakar

On Saturday, Abu Bakar Atan really caught me off guard when he announced his decision to withdraw from defending the Sportswriters Association of Malaysia (SAM) presidency and effectively handing me the top post on a silver platter.

Honestly, I was shocked! I never expected that, not even when one of my friends mentioned the possibility when he called me on my way to the EGM.

Bakar is a good friend of mine. I can still recall how he guide and advice me when I was just a rookie sports reporter in the early 1990's when he already established his reputation as one of the top football writers in the country.

In the one and only time SAM organized sports carnival, I believe in 1993, Bakar and I formed partnership in table tennis and we managed to qualify to the final before we lost to a pair from Nanyang Siang Pau.

I am thankful for his friendship.

When I decided to contest the SAM top post, it was never with the intention to undermine him. I am too small to be compared with him. Bakar has done and achieved much more, when I am practically still in the early part of the journey to the same desired destination.

Bakar, I appreciate what you have done to SAM, and to me, personally. From the bottom of my heart, I am humbly requesting you to continue giving your support and guidance for me - for the betterment of SAM.

Thank you Bakar!

Angin perubahan terhalang

Ditunjangi dorongan rakan-rakan, aku memberanikan diri untuk cuba mengubah situasi yang ketika ini lebih tepat digambarkan seperti 'nyawa-nyawa ikan' dan 'hidup segan, mati tak mahu.'

Namun angin perubahan cuba dibawa - tercipta menerusi keghairahan majoriti yang mahukan supaya organisasi pernah gemilang dahulu, kembali ke landasan keunggulan - kini terhalang.

Atas alasan elemen teknikal - bertunjangkan perlembagaan yang anehnya tidak pula dipatuhi 'golongan pemerintah' ketika mereka terpilih, tiga tahun lalu - kesanggupan rakan-rakanku, diperlekehkan menerusi keputusan bahawa mereka tidak berhak untuk bertanding.

Bukan mahu organisasi diperkudakan selaku milik peribadi, jauh sekali aku mahu memperjuangkan agenda pentingkan diri. Keikhlasan membantu, bersama-sama barisan rakan yang sedia memikul tanggungjawab untuk 'sama-sama bekerja', jadi sandaran kami ketika memilih untuk menawarkan diri.

Pintu untuk tiupan angin perubahan itu kini sudah tertutup rapat. Dimanggakan dan dikunci mati. Kerana hajat 'golongan pemerintah' tampak masih utuh, ketika tugas untuk membangkitkan kembali organisasi yang kian longlai, belum tentu mahu mereka langsai.

Aku di persimpangan. Mahu terus melangkah buat mencabar, tetapi bersendirian pula menongkah arus. Mungkin berundur pilihan terpuji, tetapi bimbangkan pula masa depan organisasi yang kian hari, kian menginjak ke ambang mati.

Sanggupkah Aku Mengalah? Sampai Akhirnya Mereka....Selesaikan Agenda Masing-masing?

Pahang - Privileged and Protected?

Latest rumour that emerged from FAM corridors is that Pahang - the President's state team - will be saved for the third time when ONLY ONE (1) team will be relegated from Super League to the Premier League, next season.

The proposal will also see three teams from Premier League promoted to the top league.

For the record, Pahang was second from bottom when 2009 Super League concluded recently. Based on current competitions rules, TWO TEAMS will be relegated to the second tier league.

This proposal was linked to FAM Competitions Department. Competitions Committee Chairman, Datuk Che Mat Jusoh, apparently was informed and he does not register any objections.

Honestly, if this bit of info is true, it will be a clear evidence of FAM insensitivity towards public. They don't care what the football-loving public says and it's further strengthen the embarrasing 'you scratch my back, I scratch yours' culture n the national body.

Maybe it's about time National Sports Council - which has been funding FAM to a tune of several million ringgits per year - look into this 'excellent culture.'

And Sports Minister, Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek (pix) to finally tackle something serious like the addressing the ills in FAM, instead of giving advice to badminton players - who, by the way, are frequent fliers, on how to do stretching in the plane.

Need I remind you, Datuk, about what New Zealand's General Manager of High Performance, Sports and Recreation, Mr Martin Toomey, said during Malaysian Sports Industry Convention (KISMAS), last weekend, on the importance of 'placing QUALITY people in influential roles' in sports associations?

Now is the time, sir!

Kejohanan Dunia 'diancam' pengganas

Barisan pemain negara bersama Menteri Belia dan Sukan sebelum berlepas ke Hyderabad, Jumaat lalu.

Barisan pemain badminton negara sudahpun berlepas ke Hyderabad, Jumaat lalu.

Namun hari ini, sehari sebelum kejohanan bermula, muncul berita bahawa skuad England sudahpun menarik diri daripada saingan di Hyderabad, India, ekoran ancaman daripada kumpulan pengganas, Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Diharapkan pemain-pemain berada dalam keadaan selamat. Diharapkan juga mereka akan dapat memfokuskan tumpuan dan tidak terganggu dengan ancaman sebegini untuk melakar sejarah dan membawa pulang gelaran dunia sulung buat negara.

Mari kita sama-sama doakan keselamatan dan kejayaan mereka di Hyderabad.

RM6 million headache

Want to know how bad is M-League, financially? Let just say (as far as FAM is willing to admit) it's a RM6 million headache.

And that is just the debt owed by seven teams to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF). FAM admits there are other debts, including to the Inland Revenue Board, which will make the figures easily surpassing the RM10 million marks.

Read my story here and Eric Samuel article, here.

The end of clubs in top league?

Officially, details for the 2010 M-League format were discussed briefly in the session conducted today, with representatives from State FAs given an extra week to digest proposals by Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) Competitions Department.

Unofficially, I was told that a drastic proposal - which is to demote all clubs from top tier league and confine them to play amongst themselves in the second division league - was discussed at length by gathering which consist primarily from State FAs.

The top tier league - a name will be proposed soon to replace 'Super League' - will see all state teams, including Sarawak and Pahang which are supposed to be demoted after finishing as bottom two teams in the just-concluded Super League, keeping their places automatically.

But in a move designed to appease the clubs, FAM will allow them to hire foreign players for the second tier competition.

Honestly, this is not the first time 'FAM affiliates' try to sideline clubs to protect their interest. If I am not mistaken, there was a proposal, either for last year's competition or for this season, to bar clubs from taking part in the Malaysia Cup competition.

Luckily, this is still just a proposal. But if what I heard is true - that no clubs will be invited for the second 'brainstorming session' on the 15th August - it could possible that this 'drastic proposal' will be given the green light.

Will this be the right thing to do? Will keeping the clubs out from top competitions help State FAs to be more competent in handling their affairs? By paying players' salary on time? Settling debts to EPF and Inland Revenue Board?

My fear is that FAM is trying to come up with cure which is not relevant to the disease. Like giving a flu jab to a man suffering from gout!