There are heroes and history aplenty in Southeast Asia. It is hard to take a taxi in Bangkok after a Thailand game and not be told that the team needs a modern version of legendary ’80s striker Piyapong Pue-on. Part of the deal of being a Malaysian fan is to mention “Super” Mokhtar Dahari, the tree-trunk thighed terrorizer of ’70s and ’80s defenses and there are the Barcelona antics of the Filipino goal machine Paolo Alcantara that have caused many a misty-eyed Manila night.
The present is not quite as glorious.
One-by-one, after falling behind those in west and east Asia, the region’s teams have fallen by the wayside en route to next year’s Asian Cup in Australia. Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam have played a combined total of 15 qualifiers and managed one point between them. Then Singapore were put out of their misery in the early days of the Year of the Horse, leaving just Malaysia with a chance of representing Southeast Asia in January next year — and even that is far from certain.
Photo: AFP
Failure would leave a region of 600 million without representation again, while about 150 million in west Asia have eight teams and counting — talk about underachievement.
The sad truth is that match-fixing is the most likely topic in the international media when you read about soccer connected to Malaysia or Singapore. If it is Indonesia then it is going to be about political chaos or players dying after not getting paid and being unable to afford medical treatment, while if it is Myanmar then perhaps it is crowd trouble. If it is another country, well, you are probably not reading about the other countries at all unless it is about another pre-season tour by an English Premier League giant.
In most of the region, you can watch pretty much every English top-tier clash live every weekend. Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal shirts are common sights and exhibition games are as popular as they are expensive. In Singapore, soccer-lovers gather round in cafes and restaurants while ignoring the local S-League.
In truth, the Premier League can be an easy target and blaming it for Southeast Asian ills is an oversimplification, but it does cast a long shadow that makes it that little bit tougher for the local game to find a place in the sun.
Corruption is a much bigger threat.
Stories of match-fixing still abound in Malaysia creating a climate of suspicion. When a T-Team goalkeeper let in a corner last season, he was immediately hauled off, then literally pushed off the pitch by English coach Peter Butler.
However, incompetence and politics are just as damaging.
Powerful people are attracted to the beautiful game in the region and often local media either cannot or will not call them to account.
What has happened in Indonesia will become a case study for how not to run a country’s soccer scene. It remains the only Southeast Asian participant in a World Cup (back in 1938 under the guise of the Dutch East Indies). However, it now has the distinction of being the country with the highest potential, but the lowest standard of governance.
FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, allowing a convicted criminal to run the national soccer association from his prison cell and return to office upon release was breathtaking, as were the eventual results that included the setting up of rebel leagues and federations, supporter deaths, player deaths, player strikes and a whole lot more.
Being caught in December last year in the FIFA world rankings by Guam, an island with less than a thousandth of Indonesia’s population, was another low.
At the national team level, repeated failure reinforces a negative tendency for Southeast Asia to retreat into itself.
It has become something of a soccer bubble with the national teams playing each other far too often outside the AFF Suzuki Cup. This biennial Southeast Asian tournament is far more colorful than its equivalents in east, south or west Asia, but few elsewhere care.
The region does not yet export players to Europe to any significant extent and those who go overseas often leave amid fanfares, before returning home quickly and quietly. There are occasionally wildly ambitious plans with major clubs in the big leagues, such as the Thai trio who went to Manchester City in 2007 thanks to former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Exports to Australia and Melbourne Victory were more successful, but have not been built upon.
Japan’s J-League is eager to build links with the region and Indonesian star Irfan Bachdim has just signed for top-tier club Ventforet Kofu in a move that needs to be a success, even just a moderate one.
Most of what progress has been made has come at club level where money can have a swift impact and while it is sporadic, some leagues are starting to be taken seriously.
When Melbourne Victory take on Muangthong United in the final playoff of the Asian Champions League, they will be meeting a well-run, well-financed and well-supported outfit.
The club from just north of Bangkok are setting standards in the Thai Premier League, along with Buriram United.
Buriram, owned by well-known politician and former Thakshin ally Newin Chidchob reached the quarter-finals of the Asian Champions League last season, disposing of Brisbane Roar in the playoffs, before finishing above Japan’s Vegalta Sendai and China’s Jiangsu Sainty. Then Uzbek powerhouse Bunyodkor were seen off in the second round. It was no fluke.
The Malaysian league is also on the move, match-fixing controversies notwithstanding.
While the likes of Vincent Tan and Tony Fernandes are investing money in Britain, there are others spending big in the former British colony.
Pablo Aimar is with newly rich Johor DT and the Argentine scored a beauty at the weekend even if his star-studded team lost 3-2 to a Pahang team coached by Ron Smith and marshaled at the back by former Fulham defender Zesh Rehman.
Attendances in the new season are booming.
Malaysia and Thailand provide some cause for optimism, but it is not enough. Standards are rising — though the same is true of almost everywhere — with some decent young talent coming through, though it comes through slower than it should, held back as it is by a lack of good coaching at youth levels.
Youth development, or the lack of it, is perhaps the biggest failing of all with too much meddling, politics, short-sightedness, not enough investment in the right areas and a lack of patience.
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