With the poor display of the national football team in their recent performances, Tunku Mahkota Johor (TMJ) has called for a public debate on national TV with influential individuals in the footballing industry about the issue. While a few of them such as Khairy Jamaluddin and B. Sathianathan has agreed to participate in the debate, national coach Datuk Ong Kim Swee expressed his will not to get involved in the debate.
However, national football critic, Professor Emeritus Tan Sri Dr. Khoo Kay Kim has come about to say that there is not point in organizing a debate if the bodies involved do not take proper actions regarding the issue.
“We need an initiative and not blank speeches. If the debate merely suggests ideas without the steps to achieve it, then there is no point of having such a debate,” he told Berita Harian.
“A lot of youngsters who are lacking in experience and knowledge possesses the tendency to debate about the issues that occur within the footballing industry because of their passion in increasing the quality of the performance shown by the national team,” he expressed.
He was also quick to say that the debate will not result in any improvement towards the gameplay of the national team unless the panel takes initiative to implement the suggestions given during the debate.
“In my opinion, what we should do now is an extensive research to identify the root of the problem and to draft out a plan to overcome it so that we can achieve quality football like we used to last time,” he proclaimed.
WHAT DO WE THINK?
Dr. Khoo’s opinion may be right but then if we were to think about it, a debate brings out the competitiveness among the debaters. Which means, the debaters will have conviction in whatever they voice out in order to solidify their ideas. Therefore, this debate can actually lead to the organizations involved gaining a plethora of opinions and suggestions given to them by the debaters and also by fans (since TMJ insists for a public debate).
We think that the fans possesses more passion for the sport than the leaders of the industry as they are the ones who support their team week in and week out. But then, the governing bodies for football within the country does not hold public meetings for the fans to voice out their opinion about the industry.
Of course, even if a public debate is organized on live television, it will be a pointless event if the panels do not put in the effort to implement the ideas they received during the debate.
Other posts by Lekshman Subramaniam
