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Thursday June 26, 2008

Perak, Penang players approached with offers

By RONNIE OH

GEORGE TOWN: Loan sharks are on the prowl for desperate Malaysian professional footballers – no thanks to the state FAs who are unable to pay their salaries on time.

Perak coach Steve Darby revealed yesterday that his players told him that people unknown to them had approached them with loan offers.

“This is an unhealthy situation. Desperate players are vulnerable and it could lead to other undesirable things like illegal bookmaking and match-fixing. But my players have been magnificent. They have turned down the offers and approached me for help.”

Halted: Perlis’ Mohd Badrul Azam Zamri is stopped in his tracks by UPB-MyTeam’s Khaironnisam Sahabudin during their Malaysia Cup Group C match at the Utama Stadium on Tuesday. UPBMyTeam won 2-1. – Bernama

The Perak FA, ironically, are among those in financial difficulties and the last drawn salary for players and officials was on March 30.

Penang are also on the same boat and an official, who asked not to be named, said that their players had also been approached by loan sharks.

Darby said that the Perak FA were in dire straits and the team were in danger of not being able to fulfil their commitments in the Malaysia Cup.

He added that the FA did not even have funds to enable the team to travel for their next away match against Johor PG at the Larkin Stadium in Johor Baru on June 30.

''It is unfortunate but it is true. With our bank account already empty, we do not have funds to make payments for the bus and the hotel,'' said Darby in Ipoh after returning from Kuantan with the team following the match against Pahang, which ended in a 2-2 draw.

However, the Englishman was confident that the management would be able to sort out the problems.

The Perak FA acting president, Datuk Mahiyuddin Arshad, said that with their budget reduced by RM1mil this season, they had to cut down on expenses but still ran into financial woes.

“We had the team travel by road instead of by air and did away with unnecessary hotel stays. Players also had to take a pay cut,” he said.

''This has largely to do with the sudden freeze of the much depended upon State government's allocation of RM2.8mil. We use this money not only for our league commitments but also to pay our coaches and players their salaries.''

Mahiyuddin added that they had approached the FA of Malaysia (FAM) and the state government to help them solve the problems and the former had indicated their willingness to help.

Perak are one of the few teams who still draw decent revenue from gate collection.

But Mahiyuddin said that the money was to service their long-term debts, including payment to the players' Employees Provident Fund, taxes and stadium charges.

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