Khairy Jamaluddin has slammed Football Association of Malaysia by stressing on the fact that health of players and spectators is more important than football matches.
This is in the wake of the Malaysia Cup match between Selangor and Felda United last Saturday, which went ahead despite haze conditions being terrible on the day.
“ISN have already predetermined the API level that’s suitable for anyone to engage in any outdoor sports activities, so all organizations must follow the guidelines.
“The health of players and fans are way more important than completing a fixture because if something bad happen to the players and the crowd, that means the organizers are also responsible,” he told Utusan Malaysia.
Selangor’s Mehmet Durakovic and Felda United’s Irfan Bakti also disagreed with FAM’s decision to go ahead with the match. ISN’s proposed yardstick for bad haze conditions is when the API reaches 100, but FAM claims that the API reading needs to be at 150, in order for a match to be called off.
WHAT DO WE THINK?
It’s clear that this is merely a case of misunderstood yardsticks. But logically speaking, it’s better to be safe than sorry – precisely why FAM should have adopted ISN’s advised yardstick of 100. It’s easy to shift the blame on FAM, when it comes to any issue these days. But in this one, FAM could have avoided trouble by postponing the game. Visually, the air looked really bad before kick off and though the API readings did not reach 150, any ordinary individual would have been able to feel the poor conditions on the day.
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