COMMENT | The country is in the midst of a national trial. Not in courtrooms, but in coffee shops, clubs, bars, and homes. No judges, no lawyers - just the public trying to make sense of one of the most bizarre football scandals in history.

When it comes to the court of public opinion, formalities, decorum, and niceties are dispensed, and bold facts gleaned from various sources are presented to back or rebut claims.

At the centre of this storm is the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), but the indictment goes far beyond.

It implicates government systems, civil servants, and the very machinery of governance that allowed this fiasco to unfold.

The evidence is scattered across media reports, damage-control statements, unsolicited outbursts from officials and self-styled “analysts.”

However, one figure looms largest: a mysterious agent who...