Match fixing and money woes affecting Johor football

MATCH fixing and financial woes have caused the Johor football team to spiral down the rankings in the national football scene, a state executive councillor said.

State Youth and Sports committee chairman Md Jais Sarday said the management tried to rope in young players with reasonable salaries for the current season.
“We wanted to groom these young players and targeted to achieve success by the 2013 season.
“But they did not meet our expectations and some got involved in match fixing,” he said in his winding-up speech at the state assembly here.

Md Jais said the management had since expelled four players.
Comparing Johor to the high-flying Kelantan team, he said: “Imagine how hard it is for our football team to run on a tight budget when Kelantan spends about RM5mil a season.
“The management of the team (in Johor) are forced to find ways to pay the salaries of the players and staff.
“Because of this, our best players have moved on to other teams,” he said.

Md Jais said Johor, which is playing in the lower Premier League, received a sponsorship from JCorp amounting to RM2.7mil.
He said when the state team was in the Super League last year, it received a sponsorship of only RM700,000.
Of this, RM400,000 was from the state government while the other RM300,000 was sponsored by paint company Colourland.
Md Jais said sports accessories company Al-Ikhsan sponsored the jerseys and sports gear.