Tengku Mahkota Johor (TMJ) Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim made history as the sole representative from Southeast Asia when he recently spoke at the World Football Summit in Spain.
The World Football Summit saw a number of other influential figures; namely Atletico Madrid’s Chief Officer Miguel Angel Gil, La Liga’s Corporate Director Javier Gomez, and PFA Deputy Chief Executive Bobby Barnes.
In his keynote speech, TMJ highlighted the problems that is plaguing Malaysian football, calling for his Southeast Asian counterparts to realize just how important and impactful football is. It’s a sport that unites people regardless of colour, race, age, gender with just one common denominator, which makes it more than just a game.
In Malaysia, the Crown Prince of Johor attributes the problems to broadcasting rights, amongst other things. He explained how other countries have a balance between sponsorship and funds from broadcasting rights as financial support.
On the contrary, financial support for Malaysian football clubs solely rely on sponsorship, as the Malaysian Football Association (FAM) takes a large chunk of the broadcasting rights, instead of allocating the funds for the clubs.
TMJ also called for both TV and MNCs to give more support to local football, and provide more support for international exposure.
Apart from fighting for broadcasting rights for every local football club, TMJ also asserted that every team should have its own Youth Development Program before competing in the league, as well as improvement in football facilities in order to move forward.
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