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HangPC2 wrote:Petaling Jaya FC : The big bang ?




July 2013 | Published Under : Articles, Bola-bola






Petaling Jaya FC



Petaling Jaya Football Club has not kicked a ball yet. In fact, the club does not have any players.

Petaling Jaya FC is nothing but an idea, an inspiration that could potentially trigger a football equivalent to a “ big bang ” – only if the club becomes an actual entity.

The approach taken to make the club a reality is certainly a novel one. The people behind the idea – two football fans, are approaching it like any new product. Find the target market and find out if the product will sell. The approach definitely does not give much picture to paint, but gives them a no loss exit strategy, should it fail. It is however, a slow and calculated one.

The duo behind the “ club ” , both whom do not wish to be named at the moment, have no football background besides Sunday kickabouts. However, both are very much passionate about the game and would love nothing more than to see Malaysian football league match the best in Asia. For them, the only way this could happen is if less emphasis is put on State teams and more opportunities given to club teams.

It cannot be just any football club, but one that has its roots in the local community, a club that the local folks in the town, city or district can call their own as opposed to corporate football clubs who are more interested in establishing their corporate brand than be a community icon.

For ease of reference, let’s refer to the two men as Tom and Harry.


Tom explained, “ We definitely see more clubs nowadays in the FAM league and the Premier League. There are also a few in the Super League this season.  But clubs that still carry their corporate names will not go far, if they insist on sticking to their corporate identity. ”

“ There are a lot of clubs who have competed in the Malaysian league gulung tikar.  I’m sure financially they are quite strong or at least started strong, but there is almost zero interest in their clubs. Why ? For one thing, the fans do not feel that they share any commonality with the club. There is no chance of establishing strong support. ”

It is in this sense where Petaling Jaya FC hopes to do it differently by making the effort to build a symbiotic relationship with the people of the Petaling Jaya.

Tom further explained, “ The club will have to take it one step at a time. Nothing can happen overnight. But we have a clear idea of what we want to achieve and how we want to achieve it. ”

“A lot of off field activities that we want to do, whether it is marketing the club, our future sponsors and partners, will involve the community. The club will also want to give a piece of something back to the people who support our endeavors on the pitch, if it ever becomes a reality.”

The club is looking at creating a structured and professionally run club setup. According to Harry, football and marketing will make up the crux of the setup. The duo believes that football clubs cannot simply survive by on field successes alone. And they have a valid point, especially when you look at what happened to Selangor MPPJ, who became the first club side to win the prestigious Malaysia Cup.

They withdrew their participation in the local league a few years after that success and are now defunct.

It is a fate that Petaling Jaya FC hopes to avoid once their seed is sown.


Tom further explained, “Gone are the days when football clubs bring people together just by creating a team of 11 men. Fifty or forty years ago, there was not much entertainment. So to go to the nearest football field to watch your local team was entertainment. Nowadays, you have paid TV channels and you get European league matches live on telly. A club or team needs to give a reason to people to go watch them at the football ground. ”

“ It has become a ‘ WIIFM ’ – What’s in it for me, generation of fans and you can’t really blame them. ”

Initially, Petaling Jaya FC used their Twitter account, @PetalingJayaFC, to try to raise interest and support for the idea. But the team had to take a step back after a couple of months and re-plan their strategy.

Now they have moved on to the next level and feel that they are very ready to go for broke. At the time of writing, the Club has already started to send out sponsorship proposals to corporate bodies to obtain funding for the team. At the same time they have started an online petition on change.org with the purpose of obtaining pledges from potential supporters.

Asked to comment about the petition, Harry explained, “ We only ask fans to spend a few minutes to click a ‘ Sign ’ button to show their support. We are not asking for much. For us to see strong support for the idea would drive us to make it happen. There are a lot of doubters who do not believe in the approach we are taking, but if they really want to doubt us, then they should give us a chance to fail first.”

Asked about what is in the works if the idea kicks-off, Harry answered, “We do not have big names or well known figures to make up the club management team. We plan to keep it small and recruit fellow fans to help oversee club operations.  That would be our first task. With sufficient funds, the club would engage a third party to handle PR and marketing and as far as football is concerned, we are planning to get maybe identify an ex-professional to help out. ”

And the future ? Tom has no doubt that Petaling Jaya will be an icon for the city of Petaling Jaya.



“ We are ambitious. Football clubs will not survive on football alone, so we have worked out a strategy to venture into other businesses opportunities in order to sustain us financially. An obvious venture would probably be property investment or investing in new technology, but that’s for us to think about in five to ten years. The important thing now is to take the first step. We will eventually get there. ”

“ However, even if the football club does not come from us, if someone else decides to adopt the idea and successfully starts a PJ club, we will see our effort as a success. What we always wanted was a local city club to support and regardless of who the founder is, we will be satisfied. ”

As for now, Tom and Harry say they will continue until they have ousted all possible channel and resources.

Will it fail or will it be a success ?


If you believe in Petaling Jaya FC’s vision, pledge your support at change.org.

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/malaysian-football-fans-and-members-of-the-petaling-jaya-community-pledge-your-support-for-a-new-petaling-jaya-football-club



Sources : http://www.msllivefc.com/

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