Disrespectful?

Something hit the news recently which I felt quite amusing and hilarious. At the same time, I also feel that it's stupid and unnecessary. What is that you may ask. Well, let me show you this little excerpt quoted from one of our national newspaper, The Star.


"The FA of Malaysia (FAM) have caved in to pressure from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and ruled Manchester United out of playing in the country in July, throwing their Asian tour into chaos. "


Another line reads:


"“If they want to come (to Malaysia) during that time they can’t,” Tengku Abdullah said.
“The sanction has not been given by the AFC and we have to follow it. Manchester United cannot come to Malaysia during the Asian Cup. They will have to rearrange their schedule.”
Hammam on Monday slammed United as “disrespectful” for scheduling a tour during the Asian Cup Finals being held in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam from July 7-29. "

Well, all in all, it is just about the Manchester United's Asian tour clashing with the Asian Football Cup competition. The competition is being held throughout the month of July and Manchester United are scheduled to arrive to Malaysia and play against Malaysian XI on July 27.





First of all, how big is the Asian Cup competition? Is it as big as the UEFA European Champions League? How about the English Premier League? The Spanish La Liga? The Italian Seri A? My term of 'big' here refers to TV coverage, advertisements, earnings and so on so forth. Walk around in the streets and randomly ask people this:


"Do you know the Asian Cup competition? Or do you know about the English Premier League?"


Guess what's the answer? English Premier League. Don't trust me? Go ahead and give it a shot. Ask around!





This fracas actually caused much football pundits to question whether should action be taken or not. ESPN's Sportcenter even aired a section of Football Focus, showing each of the football pundits on their views on this outburst.


All the four pundits, reknown pundits Shebby Singh, Jamie Reeves, Steve McMachon, and Paul Masefield, said that the Manchester United Asian tour can indeed co-exist with the Asian Cup competition. They all agreed that there should be some sort of compromise between the two events to promote football in this region. The biggest joke came from Jamie Reeves. He went on and say who watches the local football anyway. My my, that was quite a hit, wasn't it?





Even The Star's forum published views of readers against the Asian Cup. The Star even carried out a poll regarding this issue, and 94% out of 107 people who voted said that the Manchester United Asian tour shouldn't be cancelled.


My point of view on this is, well, who watches Asian Cup? I mean, does more people watch Asian Cup or more people watch Manchester United? Please, one of the biggest club in Europe will be playing in our country. This can even promote Visit Malaysia Year, and you want to cancel it? Don't you think that's outrageous? Another thing, when do you see 80,000 fans watching football in our national stadium? Heck, only when Manchester United or other big European clubs play, of course! There's no point comparing who's going to win if European teams meet Asian teams, what more Malaysia. Besides, it's not even the Malaysian national team who are going to face Manchester United. It's Malaysian XI for goodness sake. Does that affect your competition? And, the match is scheduled on a rest day for Asian Cup. Does that affect the competition also? Don't you think that it will increase the number of people watching Asian Cup if Manchester United plays? Surely, more people will be watching football and the organisers surely can do some advertisements or promotion to attract these fans to watch the Asian Cup, don't you think so?


By cancelling Manchester United's tour to Malaysia, many fans will be disappointed as they don't get to see their football idols in live action. It's a totally different atmosphere watching a live game and watching it on TV, isn't it?





All in all, I think by cancelling the Manchester United's tour to Malaysia, it will be a very dumb move to promote our country and our football, don't you think so? Or all this ongoing fracas is just a desperate advertisment for the Asian Cup as Malaysia is hosting it? Not enough publicity anyone?


Sigh, all ready to shout EPL Champions 2007 in Bukit Jalil and then the hopes suddenly turned gloomy. Absolutely dumbness!!





Oops... =p