Football: Malaysian fascination with foreign football

It's no secret that Malaysian loves foreign football, especially English football.

It goes back to when the English brought football to Malaya before the second world war.

The fascination became stronger in the 60's till the late 80's.

English team such as Liverpool and Manchester United became local favorite.

But while we enjoy watching foreign football on the telly, we still frequent local stadium and district matches. Most of us actually played football on real pitch and enjoy being outdoor.

Things changed in the 90's when more and more foreign football flood Malaysian TV. When cable (or rather satellite) TV hit our shores, all hell broke loose. Not only foreign premier football get live telecast, even sub standard league or matches (what kind of looser would watch an English second division team) are shown over and over again. TV pundits (mostly ex english club players making good money in this region) talk about pre game prediction and post game result over and over again. It is simply over kill.

Local newspaper gives foreign scene a full treatment , with average of 2-3 pages coverage. Local football are reserve for occasional half a page story.

Why the zero interest in local football? The answer is easy - local football lacks the quality and excitement of its European peers. I do agree to a certain level, but local football is not that bad. If you watch it on telly, obviously the camera and technique of coverage doesnt reflect the true nature of the game. Our stadium lighting is poor and local telly use old and static camera recording from a far. Audience feels detached from the action on the pitch. Go watch the game live and you will feel the excitement. Have a weekend sport night with family and friend. You will enjoy it. Get up from the couch and stay away from kedai mamak/pub. If you are a true football fan, go to your local stadium.

Why the over the top fascination with English football? The answer is easy - gambling. The support the media gives to english football is because of the demand. The demand is fueled by gambling - legal and illegal. In Malaysia, it all illegal.

Other countries, i.e. Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam don't have the problem that we have in Malaysia. It could be that they don't have cable TV that feed them sub standard foreign game to waste time on. Or it could be that they are true football fan that just get pumped watching local team live. They share the same spirit as English and other European fan.

It is so irritating to see locals being over zealous about 'their team' when they themselves have never actually watch 'their team' plays on a real pitch. There some locals who have actually stayed in UK and support the local team while there. I have no issue with this group of people. And more than often , they support smaller teams like Coventry (i.e Adi), Portsmouth (i.e. Man) and Aston Villa.

I support Liverpool as I grew up with the Daglishs, Rushs, Barnes, Sounesses and Grobblears. But I still support my favorite local teams - Penang, Kedah and of course the national squad. Make no mistake on which way my support will sway if these locals team are up against Liverpool.

Enough ranting - just go the local stadium and have fun. Skip the teh tarik session, enjoy family and friend outing at local stadium. Not only football, other sporting event is worth the visit. You will love it!