Need to record the historical moment here. Hari Ini Dalam Sejarah. At 3pm on 3 Jan 2013, The OrangeMan in conjunction with hooha.asia held the first ever live chat on football over facebook. It was held over 2 frantic hours and it wasn't enough. In the beginning it was quiet for about 10 minutes..then suddenly it just exploded.
Thank GOD I had 3 keys topics to discuss, otherwise knowing football fans' passion we could have discussed everything under footballing sun and the chat could have never ended. Maybe I should have the longest ever live chat event and go for Guinness Book of World Records.
The topics were: The new Malaysian Super League (MSL) season is about to commence in January. New big money that was not available previously suddenly has appeared. Players are being paid up to RM100k a month by Johor Darul Takzim. Some other teams have also followed suit.
1. Is this new money good for Malaysian football and grassroot development?
2. Is it our answer to qualifying for world cup and Asian championships?
3. Or is it a fake bubble when it bursts is going to leave a lot of players and teams bankrupt?
The questions and comments came thick and fast and I was struggling to answer and comment at a timely manner. Somehow I managed it.
The most interesting question for me was by Sulaiman Gerrard who spends most of his time with young boys developing grassroots. He asked "Hooha bro! Let's talk about Malaysian football grassroots & youth development programs. Where's the best place to start them? Schools of course but what do we see in our schools today? Whatever happened to "1 student, 1 sports", Rakan Muda, Tunas Gemilang program? Failures??
My favourite answer was by Arul Prasad. He said "not sure if anyone agrees with me, but I think we should forget about FAM or any government organization working to bring the grassroots up...i feel we should start small, and from the ground. Try to get 10+ teams from around one small area (maybe within 5 - 10 secondary school zones). The school fields can be the stadiums for starters. Get private sponsors like the local Ali Maju, or Mydin or whatever to support the team in terms of jerseys, boots, transportation, etc. Start a private league for this local clubs and make the clubs the go to place for young kids from schools to get some football experience."
The most creative solution was by Joshua J Pillai: "now its time for our BURSA top 10 to have KPI or CSR projects on investing on this grassroots.. i.e, Why on earth SP Setia, Air Asia & TM to name a few all investing there...leave aside some money for our youngsters...i just think FAM is too LAZY too brainstorm on this... as long someone make money, then just let it be....IF THIS IS WAT WE WANT I AM SURE THEY CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN.."
40 fans participated in our first Live Chat show and there were total of 269 comments. Below are some of the screen shots:
I would like to continue the football Live Chat series and thank everyone who engaged themselves with The OrangeMan LIVE CHAT.
Thank you.
The OrangeMan
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