I’ve been getting it wrong for 20 years. Like most football fans, I always assumed that the performance of Malaysia’s national football team, better known as Harimau Malaya, depended on our domestic league’s ability to remain competitive.
But these days, the Malaysia Super League seems to have little significance. In fact, it’s gradually becoming pointless — our domestic league is on the brink of extinction, and vigorous naturalisation practices are being used as a band-aid to ensure Harimau Malaya perform well in international competitions anyway.
The Indonesian national team (Timnas) is proof of how well naturalisation can work, as they scale the heights of international football despite a wobbly domestic league.
But look at the storm it caused when an all-naturalised Indonesian team was thrashed 5-0 by Australia in a World Cup qualifier. With all that hype and the promise of qualifying for the FIFA World Cup, I genuinely wonder how long they’ll last.
A competitive domestic league is what’s needed for an organic and sustainable national team — not naturalisation.
Malaysia’s practice of naturalising footballers playing in the domestic league was supposed to accelerate the league’s growth — and to be fair, it did.
There was a time when clubs scouted and developed talent from local grassroots competitions and programmes. Not because the players were exceptional, but because football was part of a broader national agenda — and because they were cheap.
Later, the focus shifted to naturalising heritage players and foreigners with at least five years of domestic league experience. That wasn’t a bad thing — it added to the league’s competitiveness and entertainment value.
But Malaysia no longer embraces those practices. Now, those in charge of Harimau Malaya have started naturalising players from outside the domestic league. As a result, the league has lost its relevance — and maintaining a national football team is no longer cheap.
To justify this new naturalisation strategy, many — including the new national coach — have been pushing the narrative that our domestic league isn’t competitive enough for international football.
Some fans blame this on Johor Darul Ta’zim FC’s (JDT) dominance. I’m not sure that’s entirely fair.
Even with a dominant team, there can still be fierce battles for Asian Champions League spots or to avoid relegation — which helps keep the league competitive and interesting.
Other clubs, even if they don’t win the title, benefit from playing against a top side. They adapt their tactics, improve player development, and strive to close the gap — raising the overall standard of Malaysian football.
Yes, there was a time during JDT’s early rise when they undermined other clubs’ competitiveness by hoarding national players to keep them away from rivals. Many of those players ended up benched and lacked match fitness.
But in recent years, JDT have actively loaned out their talents to other clubs — helping to improve not just those teams but the league as a whole.
And judging from Harimau Malaya’s recent success under former coach Kim Pan-Gon, international results often depend more on team chemistry and tactical organisation than on league competitiveness alone.
After all, a well-managed national team can exceed expectations even if its players come from a league dominated by one club.
This is true elsewhere too. Italy have rarely floundered despite Juventus’ historical dominance. The same goes for Germany, where Bayern Munich have ruled the Bundesliga for more than a decade.
All of this shows that domestic league competitiveness and international success aren’t always negatively correlated.
Still, this new Indonesia-inspired naturalisation strategy isn’t the end of the world. Because when Indonesia finally qualify for the upcoming FIFA World Cup, and if US President Donald Trump decides to include them in his Muslim-majority countries travel ban — they’ll be grateful all their players still hold Dutch passports!
The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of Twentytwo13.
