Essay: Managing a football team

Generally, football is one of the most glorious sports around the world. In Malaysia, the beginning of Malaysian Football started in 1963. Malaysia current ranking is now at 158/205 in the world and 29/46 in Asia. Anyway, in South East Asia stage, Malaysia team at 4th place behind Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam (FIFA, 2017). The highest competition that Malaysia National Team played was Summer Olympic Games 1972 in Munich and won bronze medal at the Asian Game 1974 in Iran. After that, Malaysia ranking dropped terribly and there is no improvement showed by the team. Around year 2000 above, there were no consistency in winning the match although we won AFF Suzuki Cup 2010. Those championships were only temporary. The team started to play in defensive minded and lack of creativity. As usual, we can win against among the ASEAN team but in reality, our team cannot compete with others Asian team. There was sloppy tactical style applied in the squad and totally unimpressive. There was no tactical pass, no man-marking job, lack of interception, always play long-pass ball and lost the ball possession. The fans start to feel bored with the team’s performance and do not want to watch the game anymore. Also, there are a lot of problem happened in the organization such as bribery and corruption scandals, match-fixing, hooliganism and fail to settle the arrears of player’s salary. Although, this problem is not in serious level, but we must overcome it before another big problem will coming. Malaysia also had a problem to produce young talents. We are already having our own youth academy but not capable to challenge others youth teams. So, to overcome this critical problem, we need to start constructing an effective long-term solution to make our Malaysia Team great again. To solve the problem, the team need to have strong financial sources, improve coaching and tactical system, rearrange the Youth Academy program, restructure the organization and league system, and having world class infrastructure.

 

The first solution is the team must increase their financial incomes. In football, money is very important to buy quality player and to build new infrastructure. Before that, the fundamentals that most important to have strong financial statement is by not depending to only one source. In other words, we need to diversify our income. One of the ways is by increasing the broadcast revenue. When negotiating with broadcasting company, the clubs need to assure that they must exploit all the revenue potential by searching all potential opportunities and innovative strategies (Lusbec, 2013). To deal with this, there must be an agreement between the clubs and the company about the payment. For example, if the individual clubs can do constantly and significantly enhancing their performance during the games, so the broadcast company must pay higher to the club. The concept is simple, the more people watch games, the more income we can get from broadcasting company. This solution is relevant because in Europe, almost 50% of clubs’ annual income come from the Broadcast Revenues (Lusbec,2013). Besides, the teams can make the corporate sponsorship deals to raise their income. Sponsors can generally be broken down into four major categories which are financial sponsors, athletic sponsors, technology/innovation sponsors, and vice sponsors (Phillips, 2014). In this case, the clubs must be more selective about which sponsors they accept money from. If fans see sponsors that make no sense, it may lead to no profits for the sponsor, or for the club. The key is the clubs must find the sponsors that could give profit to both sides. Another way to increase the team income is by enhancing ticket & jersey pricing strategy (Lusbec,2013). In Malaysia, most of the teams sell the ticket in the stadium. The fans must go to the stadium and they need to queue for a long time just to purchase the tickets. So, it is much easier if we can purchase the tickets using the website. The advantages are they can purchase it anytime and anywhere. At the same time, it will increase the sales and encourage more people to come to the stadium and watch the game.

The second solution is enhancing the coaching and tactical system. Malaysia lack of professional coaches that able to manage and change the Malaysian football style. In other words, we need to hire more football experts from outside especially Europe (Holand, 2016). These experts including the head coach, physical coach and tactical coach. The reason why we need European coach because they have a lot of experience in understanding and applying different tactical in squad. As we know that European tactical style is much brilliant than Asian. So, our local players can learn something new about the tactical and start to create new chemistry among them by applying this tactical. Besides that, both players and coaches must able to the understand about the football philosophy. Philosophy is about the pursuit of wisdom, it helps us answer the questions about what, why and how (Marterns, 2012). In football content, philosophy determines the way how we view the tactical applied in different situation. I am sure that European coach have excellent philosophy because they good in analyzing the opponent strategy. But for local players they need to improve it. They need more time to train hard among them, so that they will understand what the coaches instructed. When the players can understand about the football philosophy, it will become easier for them to adapt the modern style tactical. It is better if the team can apply the attacking system. For example, learn from Barcelona FC masterclass tactical. In Barcelona FC ways, the important things before attacking is by controlling the ball possession in the midfield. To control the ball, they will make a short pass among them called ‘tiki-taka’. After that, they started creating the correct formation shape like triangle and attack the opponent (Athanasios, 2012). If our local players can perform this ‘tiki-taka’ style, the fans will be excited and amazed. Another way to improve tactical system is by using current technology such drones (Heggie,2016). We can use footage taken from drone to improve and analysis the post-match or training. Although there is only several clubs using drones, we can use it as an alternative in discovering the new things in creating and analyzing the movement of players during the training.

The third solution is rearranged the Youth Academy program. Malaysia need to prioritize youth development if want to close the gap with Europe (Morientes,2016). In Spain, they already set a sharp vision to create a visible identity for them in the football world and decided to focus at the grass root level (Ahmed, 2011). The academy must focus on how to rearrange the specific program for the youth players. We can follow Germany’s ways on how their producing young talent like Kingsley Coman and Joshua Kimmich. In Germany, they already constructed the whole development program by having special football center and elite school that combine football with education (Weiss, 2013). We must introduce the youth players about Malaysia competitive league where they started to learn about the winning mentality. Give the players opportunity to play at the highest level by using the real Malaysia Super League format. Besides that, the coach that have been put in charge of these academy must have license from AFC. The clubs need to restructure the academy schedule and the players need to surpass the 10,000-hour training to become professional players. To make it become more effective, we can separate their stage development. For example, the first stage, players about age 6-14 years old will train to improve their football skill ad technique. The second stage, players about 14-17 years old will more focus on preparing the strong physical, mental and increase their stamina. The final stage, they will be exposed more to the tactical education depending on the position played. The aim to allow every player to get access to the best coaching (Weiss, 2013). To produce more quality players, each club must have their own academy and send their youth players to compete in Malaysia Super League. All youth coaches must interact regularly with the other club youth coaches to find new talent and then make the selection to represent Malaysia in international competition. To ensure that they follow in same way, team values and discipline are highly valued in the team. Next, to become top football players, young athletes need to start watching the high class matches, for example watch La Liga Spanish League. By watching this video match, the youth players will start to think on how many one-touch passes are made, how often do players look over their shoulder and watch how professionals receive and pass the ball, as well as how they manipulate and dribble while looking for the pass (Quarry, 2014). Indirectly, it will inspire the youth players to play in the same level as the professional players

The fourth solution is restructuring the football organization and league system. The reason why our Malaysia football team or club cannot become on the top of the world is because of our football management of organization and league system were poor. There is something wrong in our football management. The management of an organization especially in football team is the leader of the group that will lead the group to achieve goal. The leader must be capable to handle the team. If the leader has problem, what will their player will be? So, to solve this problem, they have to change to new strategy of management like other countries that have been successful in football. A very good example of successful football team is the Japan’s football team. They have shown to the world that Asia people also can compete in the world class level. We must follow their footstep and show to the world our ‘Malaysia Boleh’ spirit. What should be do first is kick out all the politician from leading the organization. If football fall into the hands of people who would use it for political
reasons, there will be chances they will use football as a financial hub to distribute money for political campaigns and more chances it will be used for their own agenda. The next thing that the management should change is when it comes to select the player for the team. Select the player carefully. Select only the players that show an impressive performance, skillful and able to work as a team. Do not easily select the player based on their age and physical because not all young players can play and not all senior players are great. Let the best men win concept must be use in selecting the players because it is the best way and no discrimination. Moreover, FAM can increase the quota of import player for each club in Malaysia Super League. It will improve the game quality. This is because import players may have the experience play in a big football team that Malaysian’s player do not have so they can share their experience with our local players. Also need to restructure the league system such as use goal line technology to determine whether the ball has completely crossed the goal line. In the World Cup game, this method had been used. How it will assist the referee? The referee will receive the automatic goal signal within one second to their watch which helps them make the correct call despite the following challenges. The goal line technology or other name is Hawk-Eye technology to be introduced to clarify whether the ball has crossed the line. This has proved to be a success in the Premier League since its approval in 2013. The system is already used in the latter stages of the EFL Cup and play-offs (Dobson, 2017). Next improve the referee system for example we can use Video Assistance Reference (VAR). It has same function with goal line technology but have more advanced function. Video replays will be used to help referees with decisions on four key areas such as goals, penalties, red cards and mistaken identity. Referees will have instant access to replay giving a clearer picture of what happened and with this, it will go some way to stopping the problem of grappling in the penalty area at set-pieces and corners which has polluted the game in recent years (Cunningham, 2016).

The fifth solution is having world class facilities. FAM should spend for world class stadium or training center. So, the player will play in an excellent quality pitch and can improve their individual skill. Therefore, having a very up to date facilities such gym, swimming pool. So, they can train their physical in the gym and build their stamina. Finally having a world class sports physiotherapist’s branch. A sports physiotherapist is simply a specialized physiotherapist. Sports physiotherapy is a specific branch of musculoskeletal physiotherapy which deals with injuries and conditions related to sports people (What is a sports physiotherapist?, 2017). Player’s health is the issue here. This is also another reason why we are left behind in football. Without great health , a footballer can’t perform well in match since they will have issue with their stamina. So, the players must take care of their health to be successful in football. Sports injuries do differ to everyday injuries. Athletes normally require prominent level performance and demand placed upon their body, which stresses their muscles, joints and bones to the limit. So, with having a world class sports physiotherapist’s branch they can relax in there, the consultant can teach them the true way how to take care of their health and maybe can have a massage to release stress their muscles.

As a conclusion, we need to overcome this problem immediately for our Malaysia football team to be great back as before when we have our football legend such as Mokhtar Dahari. Long time ago, in the year of this Mokhtar Dahari or also known as the ‘Super Mokh’, Malaysia football team was well known in all over the world and can be classified as one of the best teams in Asia. Of course, we as a fan want it to be happen again. As football fans, we always hope for our team to play in World Cup Competition. Also, the fans want to see our local players play in the European league such English Premier League. At the same time, the players must improve their individual skills. To solve the problem, the team need to have strong financial sources, improve coaching and tactical system, build up more Youth Academy, restructure the organization and league system, and having world class infrastructure.