Why Punnish a coach whose question made sense?

HAS the FA of Malaysia (FAM) been fair to B. Sathianathan?
Why suspend the outspoken coach for something he said that made sense?

Sathianathan, the former Kelantan coach, had questioned FAM's competition committee's decision to play Perlis' Super League home match against Terengganu on July 27 in Kuala Terengganu.

He felt it was an unfair decision as Terengganu and Kelantan were in a neck and neck battle for second place in the Super League then.

Last October, Sathianathan received a rude shock just hours before the kick-off of the Malaysia Cup semi-final second-leg match against Kedah in Kota Baru when he learnt about the six-month suspension.

The disciplinary board meted out the punishment for "touching on FAM policy matters" in the media.

Sathianathan sat out the match but got a reprieve for the final against Negri Sembilan when the suspension was temporarily lifted after he filed an appeal. The former national coach thought he had escaped punishment as FAM were quiet about it until last week when he received the bad news just days before Kelantan were to play Selangor in the Charity Shield match.

FAM's appeals committee, after months of silence, conveniently reopened Sathianathan's file and upheld the decision of the disciplinary board to suspend him for six months from all football activities with immediate effect.

The question that begs asking is: Why did the appeals committee sit on Sathianathan's case for so long? Shouldn't the chairman be suspended for delaying proceedings?

We all know it is the prerogative of FAM to decide on such cases but out of courtesy its appeals committee should have decided immediately after the Malaysia Cup final on Sathianathan so that he could take the next course of action in accordance to rules. FAM may have done the right thing under Fifa rules but it also took away another person's bread and butter.

The association even put Kelantan in the fix as they needed to quickly hire a qualified coach to replace Sathianathan before the start of the season.

And luckily the Kelantan FA (Kafa) managed to secure the services of Datuk M. Karathu just two days before the season opener Charity Shield match.

Football needs interesting characters. It may come in the form of players, coaches or management personnel.

FAM is making efforts to take our football to the next level and to do that, they also need characters to spice up the local game.

Why punish a coach whose question made sense? If Sathianathan had made baseless accusations against FAM or acted unprofessional during a match, then it would be only right for him to be punished severely.

But punishing him severely for a minor offence is totally uncalled for.

Source: NST - 2 Feb 2011