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A Few Bad Days for SEA Football

The headlines of the last few days haven’t shone kindly on South East Asian football.

Singapore and Thailand need divine intervention to progress further along the road to the World Cup in South Africa while Malaysia lurch from PR gaffe to PR gaffe.

Indeed, rather uniquely, Indonesia are the only ones to buck this trend and they continue to prepare for their revamped Super Liga in July.

At the National Stadium in Singapore the Lions were given a footballing master-class by Uzbekistan as they lost 3-7 in front of their disbelieving fans. You could point the finger at woeful defending, yes, but surely it’s better to sit back and applaud the Uzbeks whose sumptuous passing and movement meant that even your humble correspondent would have netted on the night!

During the Asian Cup last year I was lucky enough to have witnessed the Uzbeks take on Saudi Arabia in Jakarta in what was, for me the match of the tournament. That night they were unlucky to go down 2-1, hitting the post on numerous occasions.

Against Singapore, time and time again, they carved through a defence pulled this way and that by their swift movement. Maybe one day in the future parents will tell their children of the time they saw the Uzbeks hit seven at the National Stadium as the game must surely go down in the folklore of Singaporean football in the manner of the Hungarians beating England 6-3 at Wembley.

Thailand suffered their third straight defeat, their second at home, as Bahrain beat them 3-2 in Bangkok. With no points from three games, their dreams of appearing on football’s biggest stage are over.

Both the Thais and Singaporeans received further bad news when the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announced they will not be receiving a guaranteed place in the reformatted Asian Champions League next season.

The Thai Premier League is to all intents and purposes a Bangkok league with a couple of exceptions, notably Chonburi, and with poor attendances and a dearth of stadia it was always going to be a tough ask.

Singapore can consider themselves unlucky to miss out on an automatic spot but it is likely the match fixing scandal last season which saw Liaonang players imprisoned counted against them.

The only South East Asian nation to be able to compete in the ACL next season is Indonesia who will likely be represented by Sriwijaya Palembang. Their Jaka Barang Stadium hosted a couple of Asian Cup ties last year and is a short hop from either Singapore or Jakarta.

Keeping with Indonesia, the FA are busy ensuring clubs meet the stringent demands for entry into the Super Liga and two teams look like being jettisoned while question marks hang over a further three as clubs scramble to reach the required standard.

The biggest problem remains the shortage of quality stadiums in the country with PSMS Medan, Persita and Persitara looking desperately for venues. PSMS even considered nearby Penang in Malaysia before being told that was a non-starter.

It seems likely they will move to Palembang and share Sriwijaya’s stadium but this is still an hour’s flight from Medan!

Then we have Malaysia. Their Super League and Premier League finished at the beginning of May and still have Kuala Muda and KL Plus, who finished first and second respectively in the Premier League, are unsure whether they will get promoted.

One story doing the rounds last week has the FA making the Super League an all-state affair, adding PDRM and the Army and doing away with promotion and relegation, therefore saving Penang and Sarawak from the drop.

A decision has yet to be made but one can only hope the right one is made for footballing reasons.