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Selangor’s ambitious pre-season plans for 2020 have not quite gone their way.
BY ZULHILMI ZAINAL Follow on Twitter
Selangor’s ambitious pre-season plans for 2020 have not quite gone their way.
First their inaugural edition of their pre-season tournament, the Selangor Asia Challenge (SAC), which featured them and three other Southeast Asian clubs on January 18 and 19 at the Shah Alam Stadium, was beset by inclement weather, and lukewarm fan reception.
A storm on the second day, after two matches had been played on the first, led to the pitch getting muddy and the abandonment of the match between Persib and Ha Noi FC. Parts of the already leaky stadium roof were also reported to have been damaged slightly by strong winds, but thankfully there were too few supporters in attendance on the second day to be hurt by debris. The roof and pitch of their home ground became the target of social media criticism for the rest of the week.
Then, the following weekend, they had to cancel their trip to China for the Meizhou Hakka Cup, an invitational tournament, at the last minute due to the outbreak of the coronavirus. Head coach B. Satiananthan lamented missing out on two friendly matches against quality opponents in the competition, while the club is expected to be fined around RM300,000 (around USD73,200) for pulling out, despite the fact that the competition would end up being cancelled just a day before the scheduled kick-off.
It seems that in the case of the Red Giants current administration’s first Asian foray, they may have bitten off slightly more than they can chew.
Club secretary-general Johan Kamal Hamidon however explained that while the unforseen heavy rain contributed massively to the poor pitch condition, the overall crowd turnout was affected by the fact that the matches were held on two days straight.
Shah Alam Stadium
Despite the promotional work undertaken by the club, the attendance figure for the first day of the competition was just shy of 14,000, while less than half of that turned up on the following day.
“I guess it’s not easy to commit two [consecutive] days to football. It was raining the whole day on the second day, and weather plays a big role in crowd attendance. Every time it rains heavily, we see that attendance would drop, which is a consistent trend in the country. This is a factor that we need to take into account in the future.
“But the primary reason is that committing two days to football is too much for some fans. I suppose we need to grow our fanbase so that even when there’s a dip, the attendance is still huge.
“There are many reasons why SAC was organised that way; mainly because the longer it is held, the more expensive the accommodation costs get. We also wanted it to be a one-weekend event but it did not quite work out that. However, if we have an off day in between, on Saturday, and kicking it off on Friday, then the crowd will definitely give Friday games a miss! So I believe Saturday and Sunday is still the best way,” he explained.
Despite the shortcomings of the competition, the club is still interested in making it an annual event, depending on the sponsors’ response.
Johan had earlier announced that the club plans to invite clubs from a separate region within Asia to take part in each edition.
Johan Kamal. Photo by Zulhilmi Zainal
“It’s very early to say anything and to get sponsors’ feedbacks,” admitted the team official. “Of course from our side we’d love to get another edition, but we have to see whether it’s worth the money and whether the sponsors are interested in funding it.
“We haven’t sat down with the broadaster and sponsors to look at the numbers, and only when we do that can we understand it better and make well-informed decisions.”
And just like the storm on the second day of their Asia Challenge, Johan also chalked their withdrawal from the Meizhou Hakka Cup down to simple misfortune, in the form of the coronavirus outbreak.
“Yes we were looking forward to get to the competition, but certain things are out of our control. We are requesting for a 50 per cent discount on the penalty, we’ll likely get it, but the decision has not been finalised yet. Although the tournament was eventually cancelled, we did not turn up, whereas the two other invited teams did show up. It’s not easy and there’s a grey area there.
“RM150,000 is a lot! We could have signed another player with that amount, or purchased new equipment. [But] on our part, we’d like to be fair to the organiser who lost even more money than we will. It’s just an unfortunate episode for everyone involved,” explained the former students association representative.
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