A letter from a hockey lover

I received an e-mail from an ex-colleague last night. Attached to it is this letter, which contains a number of valid points. There are also allegations made against a few people.

This is the letter, unedited...MHF and NSC should really take note!




FAIL, FAIL, FAIL…
Athens Olympics 2004 World Cup 2006 Beijing Olympics 2008
Egotistical MHF and Wrong Appointment of Coaches
NSC and MHF - Please Help!

Received an sms on Thursday 10 April 2008 from a hockey lover, he said Malaysia is down 4-3 to Italy and few minutes to play. I could not believe the news; I assume it is a typo error by the data entry personnel. But my friend checked again on the net and said is confirmed. Lucky Malaysia equalized in the 70th minutes to obtained one point from Italy, a pizza diet nation.

Could not believe it because of the following reasons:
1 Italy is ranked 37th and Malaysia 14th
2 Spent millions on the Malaysian team preparation till MHF is in debts of 1.71 millions.
3 Big Funding from NSC on the Coaches and Team.
4 Malaysian team played in an elite tournament i.e. Champions Trophy (Dec 2007) and also went to Australia (Feb/March 2008) for exposure.
5 Two years of preparation i.e. full time training (day in day out).
6 Lofty level of benefits – allowances, accommodation and food is free.
7 Foreign assistance – Goalkeeper Coach from Pakistan and Advisor from Germany.
8 Scientific training – Support from ISN on fitness and nutrition
9 Physiotherapy, Medical Officer and Masseurs for the team.

Based on the above, what have the other participating teams in the Qualifiers get and done prior to the Qualifiers? But still they managed to perform to certain level and got reasonable results in the tournament. What excuses do the Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) and National Sports Council (NSC) have in their pockets or hats?

Played 6 games – 3 win, 2 draws and 1 lost. Scored 16 and let in 14 goals.

Does the above points justifies their achievement in their Olympic qualifiers in Japan. Even the blind and deaf but hockey lover would say that the team achieved is an illogical achievement based on the support and benefits.

The new MHF office bearers are almost 1 and ½ years old in the office. Most decision and policy made by certain quarters are “FLIP-FLOP”. Nothing is done based on merit and every decision is made on personal interest. The game of hockey is an ancillary to the arrogants. The Federation exists because of the game but due to ego of certain quarters think that they are bigger than the sport. They show and demonstrate their powers as though the game of hockey belongs to them.

They control most of the affiliates by giving a chance for the affiliates office bearers (President and Secretary) on a rotation basis to be the Team Manager of the Malaysian Hockey Team. This is done because of their future votes in the BGM shall permit these bigheaded office bearers to sustain power in the office.

The members or appointees selected by MHF for various positions must have the following criteria’s:

1 Must be a bootlicker and must be a friend of the arrogants
2 Every decision is maneuver before a meeting – Decision made before discussing in the meeting. Is like kangaroo courts!
3 Listen to the instruction and be a puppet master to the arrogants
4 Don’t worry whether you have the qualification to take up the post.
5 Enjoy the get together after every meeting – booze and makan sponsored by the arrogants and then claim from MHF.
6 Play the same tune or else you would be out of the system.

The Qualifiers in Japan, we heard that about 31 people went to the games to make sure the team performed at its very best – at least a seat in the Finals.

There were many officials from the Coaching team, Medical Team, Management team, Trainer, Cooks, Physiotherapist, Masseur, Video-man, NSC officials and others. Only missing link is Weatherman and Cheer Group – no allocation but NSC could consider including them in the next qualifiers, but make sure the cheerleaders are girls to stimulate the coaches and the team. No wonder the Organizers said the hotel rooms are fully booked and Gifu Government also mentioned that the turnover of tourist rise by 10% for the month of April…

The coaching department comprise of 4 members - 1 head coach, 2 assistant coaches and 1 Goalkeeper coach. MHF appointed a new assistant coach who hardly only played hockey at University or State level. No coaching background, surprisingly how did NSC allow to slip in this guy into the coaching setup and fully paid for his trip? The other coaches are appointed based on friendship and not on merit. To be a coach in the National setup you need be a friend of the arrogants and follow what they say. Don’t worry whether you are qualified or not and what was you past coaching credentials, all this is not an important yardstick for the evaluation of the appointment. The Coaching Chairman is just a dummy master who just chairs the meeting and endorsed the arrogants decision. The decisions are all made before the meeting. Poor old man! There were rumors that the current coaches have filed in for their salary increment to NSC. The revised salary asked around $15k to $21k. Don’t worry it is possible due to friendship policy between MHF and NSC. Can be done even failed to qualify…

There are two Mangers i.e. Manager and Stand-in Manager registered on the bench. But why MHF need to register two managers but only one manager was in action. What to do, just follow instruction. Everything is done based on what the arrogants feel is right. Whether the team needs one or two Manager is secondary “Mahu tolong kawan ma..”

Let’s go back to the Qualifiers result.

For sure they will be out due to Germany supremacy! But the question is how did the Malaysian team bowed out of the tournament. Not even securing a final seat, which was the MHF and NSC target.

For sure all the Media members under the friendship policy was also advised to play a low key and do a marketing job for the arrogants to keep on their posts. Tak payah risau, ada booze and makan waiting… Any MHF media jobs or tender can be considered.

After the tournament all the media members started their marketing gimmick to protect their friends by saying keep the same squad and coaches for long-term preparation. They perform accept for the third goal Japan scored? This goal is used as a deflection of the actual fact of the failure. The arrogants and friendship media members need a reason to plot their failure. They forget about the overall summary results!

The MHF and NSC could do a through and accurate investigation on the whole set-up and see where it went wrong. But the media boys started to protect their friendship policy.

Failures are a familiar story for Malaysia hockey and are common for not making the cut! But the MHF and NSC would still retain the same coaching setup because of the existence of friendship policy between the arrogants of MHF and an official of NSC!

NSC needs to intervene because the funding is people’s money – taxpayers. The public needs to know what happened? Please drop this friendship policy in any decision-making, do the right thing based on the merits. NSC is holding the key to the door of the Malaysian hockey future direction.

If one has done crime, please arrest and punished, don’t allow the criminal to be free and continue to do more crime. NSC and MHF please arrest these criminals and punished! Tolong tangkap and masukkan dalam ISA!

If the same arrogants people are running the game of hockey, don’t have any hope for the 2010 World Cup and the 2012 Olympics. By then our ranking would be 30 to 40 in the World hockey.

But MHF has also created a history that the team has missed two Olympics in a row. Syabas and the officials of the Malaysia books of record, please dot down this fact into the records book. Don’t worry the third one is coming soon if this arrogants and the coaching setup remains.

It is very disturbing the way the coaches have asked the NSC to review their salaries and allowing a University coach to be in Japan is very annoying. Rather than paying these arrogants, please take this budget and appoint a foreign coach. We had Terry Walsh, Paul Lissek and others! Is Paul Lissek still around or gone back to Germany for good.

We need a surgeon i.e. foreign coach to curb the cancer that is Stage 2, need to operate and cut the affected area, which are the bigheaded officials and coaches. Please also do an electric shock wave on the dummy master to wake him up to appoint good coaches!
NSC and MHF should do chemotherapy on the cancer! Please get the independent parties to perform this exercise. If not the same patient is treating its own recovery method, which most of the Association does after a failure.

Please address this issue to save the standard of Malaysian hockey and the game we loved the most…

The Implication for not Qualifying:

1 Ranking now 14th to 20th (postulation) after Beijing Olympics. Drop too many points to sustain number 14th. Missed 2 Olympics and 1 World Cup.
2 The Sports Ministry may consider to revised from Category A to Category B sports.
3 No sufficient / allocation of funds for future exposure and oversea stint.
4 Future generation hockey players’ benefits jeopardize.
5 Top ranking teams (1 to 10) may not invite Malaysia to participate due to the poor standard of international hockey.
6 The interest of future generation to be involved in hockey looks very dim.

Oops! Forgot that the Alongs and Debt Collectors are looking for the treasurer of MHF to settle the debts. Especially, the hotels and a restaurant owner where these arrogants have abused and misuse their powers during tournaments. More so these are public money that are sponsored by NSC and also Tenaga Nasional Bhd.

These arrogants have not even contributed any single penny but they behave as though the sponsored money is belongs to them and not the game.

Within 13 months the arrogants have raped the Federation and is in debts now. Their operating account is also freezed like the Qualifiers result.

Now they are searching for victims to bailout these debts. NSC please don’t bail them anymore…

To End. The hockey fraternity is in dilemma and heartbreaking for the state of hockey in this country.
The way forward…

Appoint several independent members (Former Coaches, Players and Administrators) with few NSC and MHF genuine officials who have an importance on this matter. The Chairperson shall be a reputable representative from NSC who has no any direct or indirect interest with regards to the game of hockey at any rank.

With this, an independent post-mortem with taking into account the “Game of Hockey” is a bigger agenda than these arrogants in the MHF setup.

If such remedial action is not taken by NSC and MHF, then we better forget in investing our support and time to the game of hockey that we loved most because of the:

“Egotistical MHF
And
Wrong Appointment of Coaches”

Thank you and all the best to NSC and MHF…