May 19 – A Malaysian supporters group is calling for a boycott of two lucrative close-season games against Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur, saying the fixtures are fruitless and serve no other purpose than to fill the coffers of the national federation.
“Ultras Malaya” have labelled the May 27 Tottenham game and the July 24 Liverpool encounter against a Malaysian XI as “circus matches” that will disrupt World Cup qualifying preparations.
“Don’t buy the tickets, don’t go to the stadium,” the group said in a statement. “The matches are simply held to make FAM (Football Association of Malaysia), the organisers and their cronies rich, so don’t let FAM and the organisers profit from this sort of nonsense.
“What’s the point? A win for Malaysia is unlikely, and you can’t be expecting the visitors to give their very best, like they play in the EPL on the TV, can you?”
The Tottenham match comes days after the Malaysian Cup final and less than two weeks before Malaysia try to win gold at the Southeast Asian Games in June, followed by the start of the qualifying campaign for the 2018 World Cup and 2019 Asian Cup.
The Ultras believe the country should focus on organising meaningful friendlies, with the national team currently in their worst ever position of 166th in the FIFA rankings.
“When you do not go to the matches and the stadium is empty, it will show to the organisers and FAM that circus matches have no place in Malaysian football. They will then have no option but to stop organising them, and start organising ‘A’ class international friendlies instead,” the statement said.
The group said they expected the 80,000 capacity Shah Alam Stadium in Kuala Lumpur would not be full and that organisers would try to give out free tickets. “When one of these free tickets come into your possession, do not be tempted to go to the match.”
“Get as many as possible, and then shred them so no one else can get their hands on the tickets and go to the stadium in your place. And don’t even think about selling them to others!”
Alfadli Awaludin, a senior member of Ultras Malaya, said Liverpool and Tottenham would be better off playing each other in Kuala Lumpur.
“It is not that we hate Liverpool coming, Spurs, Arsenal or even Manchester, Barcelona whoever, it’s just the concept is not right,” he told Reuters.
“The timing. We should be focussed more on the more important games like the World Cup qualifying. Why do we need to focus on something that does not give us benefits at all?”
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