Introduction

Don’t let the recent resurgence of our international team fool you. Yes, in terms of the national team, we have enjoyed some success recently, but that doesn’t mean that our domestic league will improve.

Ewood Park, England.

We watched the EPL, La Liga and other European leagues. A lot of times, the stadiums were sold out, or at least with a good capacity crowd. Astro Supersport has started broadcasting the J-league of Japan, and I saw they have good crowds in every match, too.

Hell, even the Indonesian League had an average attendance of 12,533 in every match in the 2007/8 season.

Stadium Sultan Muhamd ke-IV, Kota Bahru, Kelantan.

The average attendance of the Super League (the highest professional league in Malaysia) in year 2008 was 6,914 in every match, slightly lower than J-league 2. And that was because of Kelantan, the only team that enjoys capacity crowds in Malaysia. If not for Kelantan, it might be lower than 4,000.

And if you do ask, not many Malaysians know that the Super League even exists, especially the newer generations. They may know about the national team, but not the Super League.

Why is that?

The older generations will tell you how Malaysian football was back in the days, not just the national teams, but also the state teams.

In future posts, I will first clarify various football governing systems to you, why Malaysia failed, and how should the FAM (Football Association Malaysia) improve it.

Please do not misunderstand, I am a life-long supporter of Negeri Sembilan FC, I’ve been to the stadium to watch some crappy football, and I kept going regardless of the low quality and the bad organization. I've been supportive of our domestic football.

Like most around me, I had no idea why our football was so bad, and never improves.

Until I’ve come to study in Melbourne, until I’ve experienced the football here, that I realized the differences. And that motivated me to do a lot of research on this issue, and some comparisons of various systems.

And now, I would like to share it with you. I’ll do it step-by-step, and slowly. It is actually a simple theory, but complicated to explain.

Hopefully, after understanding the whole issue, the football fans of Malaysia will know what is to be done, and will start to demand it from FAM.

Again, not many people have good ideas, apart from the usual “attitude, experience, professionalism”, about improving the situation. So, the purpose of this blog is to make known to all Malaysian football fans where the problem is, what to demand, and how it should be solved.

Please spread this to as many Malaysian football fans as you can, and help me to improve Malaysian Football. Thanks.

PS: Please note that I’m not an expert in this agenda, they are all mainly personal opinions after some research.