Alhamdulilah...

Alhamdulilah. Here we are in the month of Ramadhan again. May our souls are blessed with abundance of Rahmats from the Almighty. InsyaAllah.

In this holy month, what are the actual challenges ahead of us? Empty stomach? Workloads? Financial? Relationships? Or rather something else? What ever it is, we pray hard for each and every thing to sail well without any unwanted turbulences.

If a comparison is to be made, I firmly believe that we are not the only "unlucky party" in this world. There are others who are struggling to survive and surely, survival is their main priority at the moment. Being grateful is the key to any happiness.

For an assurance, silverlining will eventually appear and before that time arrives, rely on the Almighty to assist us.

I am certainly not a saint or a cleric, but to remind each other in my own way is just an obligation to me. At least, I have done my part.

InsyaAllah, let us ride this Ramadhan with load of Allah's blessings.

Chow for now...

Your not so friendly neighbourhood

Mufarz 2015

posted from Bloggeroid

The Rich, The Famous and The Pitch

Assalamualaikum guys

Alhamdulilah. Here I am again. It has been a while since my last write up. A kind of gap... Perhaps, my new work commitment has restricted me from doing so.

Nevertheless, it's a kind of "itchy" for me to dwell on the issue of sky-high paycheques received by our local top footballers. Is this CEO-level type of salary justifiable? Are they really good? A waste of money?

According to the news portal, some of them are receiving as high as RM120k per month, I repeat, RM120 grand on monthly basis! That's even higher than some of commercial banks' CEO wages...

Based from my observation as an avid fan of local soccer scene, the quality of outputs produced by these players are still way below at least the Asian level. Just compare these so called "top Malaysian players" against some of the players from the war-torn countries, i.e. Palestine, Iraq and Syria (they don't even have proper playing fields to train and play) and these Malaysian players are absolutely nowhere. Let alone against players from the Asian heavyweight' nations such as Japan, S. Korea and Australia.

Their national contribution? The answer is still the same. Nothing can be proud of. Over the years, we put the blame on the lack of grassroot development. After almost 3 decades of the doldrums' years without any Asian level (or above) record- breaking achievement, can we still accept this "grassroot development" problem as an excuse?

Ironically, and yet, these local top-flight players are still valued at this unbelievable level of salary. I am not questioning about the fate that Allah has presented to them but rather on why these players did not make use this God-given opportunity to further enhance their ability and skill?

For an instance, about 20 years ago, an Englishman by the name of David Beckham had successfully made his fortune through Manchester United's youth program without any substantial skills. He was lacking in the basic requirement of football. He could not head the ball crisply, he couldn't dribble pass a brigade of opponent's defenders and the list go on. The only thing that had captured the attention of Sir Alex Ferguson was about his commitment. Yes, his commitment that had shaped him and propelled him to the highest level of greatness as a professional player. He trained hard, harder than everyone else on the pitch. At the end of the day, he presented the world with his masterpiece-pin point crosses and became the world's finest deadball specialist.

This is what I wish to see from our local top players. Commitment. No matter how low your salary is or how high your salary is, commitment can certainly change the level of your output.

Don't blame the authority (FAM or anything) if we cannot achieve what we should. Remember, when George Weah of Liberia being crowned as the best African players in Europe somewhere in the 90s, Liberia's football association was as good as none. Period. So, stop blaming everyone else but yourselves (note: to Bojan Hodak, stop telling your players that without great pitch, they can't perform as most of African footballing nations do not have Wembley-alike football field but their players stamped their mark as great players in most parts of the world).

Deep in my heart, I wish to see them excelling in their playing-career and to convince us someday that their sky-high salaries are justified.

Your not so friendly neighbourhood,

Mufarz - 2015