The right of the home team to lodge complaints within a stipulated period has to be respected. Likewise the right of sport leaders to put across their points of view for the betterment of respective sport and the sports industry as a whole. This way the leaders and sport associations will appreciate more the intricacies of sport and the necessary commitment and dedication when it comes to dealing with substantive nature of competitive matches/ tournament. As the episode has shown, football success is more than just free tickets, free buses and big budget.
Secondly, a referee in key matches, regardless of their track record and credibility, should not at any time during the game forget that the match he is umpiring is potentially explosive. He should always have his thinking cap on.
The controversial match was held at the newly-repaired Stadium Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin and the turnout last Saturday night was estimated to be between 35,000-40,000 spectators. The time was roughly two minutes before regulation time where Terengganu needed another goal to advance.
Referee Mohd Amirul Izwan Yaacob, will all due respect to him, should have considered the fact that he had initially allowed the goal. The least he could have done is like what Terengganu head coach Abdul Rahman Ibrahim, said, stop for a while, walk to the linesman and double-checked with him. Had it been done, the spectators inside the stadium and at home would then have understood the goal-cancellation better.
Yes the goal was offside because Nordin Alias touched the ball and there was only one (not two) Lions XII defender behind him. Had he not touched the ball, it would have probably been a clear goal as, by the look of it, it was heading straight towards the goal.
Of course the referee can change his mind before resuming a game after confirming a goal. But had he taken into account the sensitivity and the emotional atmosphere at the stadium, it would have been much better if he had been seen talking to his linesman, verifying facts. As it was, rightly or wrongly, he was seen to be cancelling the earlier goal in a hastily manner.
Indeed a former FIFA assistant referee says he could have also used the thinking referee provision in the rule book.
Instead of sending off two key import players after the disputed goal cancellation amid a tense atmosphere, he could have sent just one of them, Paulo Rangel for kicking the ball towards the Additional Assistant Referee. As for Gustavo Fabian Lopez, when he was arguing with the referee, he might have considered only a verbal warning, first. Then after the second infringement for pushing him, he could have been given his first yellow card that night. (I had read that Lopez had also apologized in his FB (?) ?
Terengganu spent millons in repairing the stadium and changing/ upgrading facilities so that it can be used again for football matches. This benefits not just the home team but also visiting teams, their fans, the media and match officials. As acknowledged by Lions XII head coach, SSMZA is among the best in the country. Compared to the alternative Stadium Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah (SSINS), it was fated that the new stadium had proven to give Lions XII the advantage - with more space for counter attacks and better grasses.
The majority of Terengganu fans are peace-loving.
The reported number of 15,000 rioting fans is a gross exaggeration. Fifteen thousand means more than the capacity at SSINS. If that was the number,
emergency might have been declared in Kuala Nerus. Only a handful of misguided fans were involved. This is validated by just more than 20 fans who were arrested. The majority was there as witnesses, snapping pictures and so on. Thank you Allah they exercised their restraint and did not follow the minority rioters.
As NLP people say, there is no failure - only feedback. FAM and the football world can learn a lot from this episode. Treat it as an important case study.
Terengganu too need to act on the feedback which they get - for a better football future.
They need to re-organise and/ overhaul their team, especially defence, so that they do not slip into the relegation zone of MSL. It is also important for them to be well-prepared for the Malaysia Cup. Look at teams which were outsed from the FA Cup earlier. They have become focussed and some are doing well in Super League.
They should also conduct pre-season refresher course on football rules and regulations for their players, officials and interested stakeholders like the media. Or else FAM may want to make this a new requirement.
They should not wait for an accident to happen before repairing level 4 and level 5 at SSMZA, as per approved budget at the State Legislative Assembly for the purpose.
Finally they may want to promote sport tourism by organising a yearly international football competition involving selected regional clubs, Terengganu and T-Team. If for some reasons they fail to wrest any Cups, at least they will still have the opportunity to win this one.
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