“Malaysia to win by a goal or two," predicted Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, when asked about the AFF Suzuki Cup final first leg match between Malaysia and Vietnam at the National Stadium, Bukit Jalil tonight.
“I hope Malaysia win, maybe by one or two goals, that will be enough,” he said during an interview on the 'Bicara Khas Bersama Perdana Menteri' programme on RTM1 last night.
The highly-anticipated showdown will start at 8.45pm today.
The prime minister was quick to point out that sports had always been a unifying factor among Malaysians of various races, religions and backgrounds.
He cited the exploits of national badminton ace Lee Chong Wei as an example, saying that every time the shuttler won, it would become the pride of every Malaysian.
“In Malaysia, we have different races, so surely there will be differences between them. But in sports, we are always together. So, what we want to see is a victory for Malaysia.
“That’s why sports is the best event for us. That’s when we forget our ancestry or ethnic group and realise we are Team Malaysia, and we Malaysians want Team Malaysia to win,” he said.
When Mahathir met the Harimau Malaya squad at Perdana Putra on Dec 7, he was quoted as saying “Don’t let me and the country down,” apart from adding that he expected to watch tonight’s match at the stadium.
Tickets on sale
A total of 3,000 tickets, set aside for Harimau Malaya supporters for the return leg match at the My Dinh Stadium in Hanoi on Dec 15, will be on sale from today until Wednesday.
Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) secretary-general Stuart Ramalingam said in a statement today that the tickets were priced at RM43 each.
He said those wishing to purchase tickets for the away match, which will begin at 7.30pm local time, need to choose the number of tickets they wanted and make full payment to FAM via its Bank Islam account 12131010006121 and keep the payment slip.
They can then e-mail their personal particulars as well as a copy of their payment slip to [email protected].
Fans, he said, can then redeem their tickets in Hanoi on Friday and Saturday (Dec 14 and 15). The fans will be contacted by FAM’s representatives in Hanoi regarding the ticket redemption.
'Tickets for Golden Dragons fans'
Ramalingam (photo) also noted that the 2,800 tickets being flogged for the first leg through the Facebook account of one Nur Iman Dzakirah are actually the allocation for supporters of the Golden Dragons.
He said the owner of the Facebook account, whose real name is Irawati Abdullah, was present with the delegation from the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) on Monday to collect the tickets allotted to the visitors for tonight’s match.
This was also confirmed by Vietnam team manager Doan Anh Tuan, who attended today’s press conference at Wisma FAM.
“FAM did a quick check and found that the tickets belonged to the VFF. They were not meant to be sold in bulk to any individual.
"Irawati has also lodged a police report regarding the false posting,” Stuart said.
He said that under an agreement between the two associations, FAM would allocate 3,000 tickets to be sold to Vietnamese fans for tonight’s clash, and VFF would set aside the same number of tickets to be sold to Harimau Malaya fans for the return leg.
- Bernama
