COMMENT If Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah goes through with his intention, as national news agency Bernama has reported, to quit the presidency of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), the decision, following Malaysia’s 10-0 drubbing by United Arab Emirates in a World Cup qualifier, will bring to an end a 31-year dominance by Pahang royals of the national governing body for football.

Thirty-one years ago last month, Tengku Abdullah’s father, Sultan Ahmad Shah, took over the reins of the FAM from the late Hamzah Abu Samah who was sleepwalking in the role.

Hamzah himself had taken over the reins from his brother-in-law, Abdul Razak Hussein, whose death in January 1976 created a vacancy that Hamzah attempted to fill.

‘Attempted’ is the operative word: you simply have no chance to govern Malaysian football if you as president do not have the gravitas for the role.

Sultan Ahmad Shah had the clout in ample measure as Hamzah had not.

In August 1984 when he took over from Hamzah, the sultan had just come off a five-year term as Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia that was remarkable for the sporting panache he displayed throughout.

Malaysians, especially its sports performers and administrators, knew they had an Agong who understood sport and who knew how to show his appreciation for their efforts at raising the country’s profile in the international arena.

Sultan Ahmad Shah earned the sobriquet ‘Malaysia’s No 1 Sports Fan’ during this time, simply from his presence at matches and competitions hosted by the country where his enthusiasm for the play was infectious.

The sports fraternity was galvanised by the Agong’s presence at major events and his evident interest and desire to see the country’s sports performers and teams do well.

There was no more potent demonstration of Sultan Ahmad Shah’s understanding and appreciation of sport than his decision upon taking over the FAM presidency to appoint Paul Mony Samuel as general secretary.

Paul Mony, a teacher-training lecturer, football coach and qualified referee, had understudied Kwok Kin Keng, longtime FAM secretary under president Tunku Abdul Rahman, and a host of other administrators, acquiring the administrative and technical smarts needed for the secretary’s role.

With Sultan Ahmad Shah to protect him from the niggling intrusions of ‘Little Napoleons’ in the state affiliates of the FAM, whose interference can drive national secretaries up the wall, Paul’s administrative talents gained full flower as Paul oversaw the sport’s transition from amateur status to semi-professional and later fully professional standing.

When Paul quit in July 2000 to take up a post as development officer with what was called Fifa Goal project, an initiative of the world governing body’s president, Sepp Blatter, the FAM had RM10 million in the kitty and RM100 million in physical assets.

When Paul became secretary 16 years earlier, the national body had RM500,000 in cash and RM5 million in buildings and property.

It was Sultan Ahmad Shah’s firm presidential hand and Paul’s astute husbandry that enabled FAM to flourish such that Blatter, in a visit to the country in the mid-1990s, pronounced the national body as one of the best governed in Asia and even beyond.

Recurrent vulnerability

However, administrative panache was no index of national team excellence.

The Malaysian national team continued to give tantalising glimpses of its potential before lapsing into familiar and recurrent vulnerability.

Not even a superb administrator like Paul could wield the wand that would effect the alchemist’s role of turning base metals into the gold of high finishing Malaysian performances in regional and continental competitions.

The national team’s decline from formidable contenders at regional tournaments and estimable competitors at continental events continued throughout the 16-years of the Sultan Ahmad Shah-Paul Mony leadership combo in FAM.

Nobody, as it were, could do anything substantive to check and reverse the decline of the national team. Decline was a psychosis of the FAM.

After Paul quit in 2000, Sultan Ahmad Shah had not the advice that he had on tap when Paul was around and gradually he devolved into a president wo was coasting on the momentum of his past mastery rather than command of current challenges.

When he retired last year and his son, Tengku Abdullah, took over, it quickly became apparent that where the father had once been commanding, the son would be flailing simply because junior does not have the requisite gravitas.

Malaysian sport, especially soccer, is still at the evolutionary stage where aristorcrats with the knowledge, vigour, and financial clout are required to helm the governing body.

The only one who may fit the bill now is the Tengku Mahkota of Johor, Tunku Ismail Ibrahim, who seems to have the interest and the ability to tap experienced and learned opinion to take Malaysia from its now embarrassing placings in Fifa’s rankings to something better in the medium term and over the longer haul.

We could do no worse than hand him the chance of leadership.

TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for more than four decades. A sobering discovery has been that those who protest the loudest tend to replicate the faults they revile in others.