Let’s not beat around the semak (bush), shall we? This isn’t some shocking, out-of-the-blue decision. This is Fifa saying, “Nice try, lads. We’re not stupid.”
The newly formed Kelantan Red Warrior FC – with a name so “different” from the recently defunct The Red Warriors FC that you’d need a magnifying glass and a PhD in semantics to spot the difference – has been deemed a “sporting successor”.
And with that fancy label comes the not-so-fancy baggage of their predecessor’s debts and a transfer embargo.
As the former chief executive officer of Perak FC, I saw first-hand the glorious, chaotic circus of a transfer embargo. Think things can’t get worse? Try kicking off a season with a roster thinner than a politician’s conscience.
Now, just before the M-League season starts, Fifa has decided to bless Kelantan Red Warrior FC with the same “gift” for being a successor club.
A club that deliberately goes bust and then miraculously reappears the following season with the “same” branding and a shiny new bank account – pretending the last season’s financial mayhem never happened – is a clear threat to the entire football ecosystem.
It fosters a culture of non-payment where a contract is worth less than a politician’s promise.
But how exactly does a transfer embargo stop unscrupulous parties from going to another club, signing contracts with players and coaches, and later driving that club into the gutter by disregarding those contracts? How does a transfer embargo punish the corporate criminals?
And where was Liga A1 in all this? The league operators seemingly stood by and watched this rebranding exercise unfold without so much as a raised eyebrow. Were they asleep at the wheel? Did they think Fifa wouldn’t notice?
It’s like watching someone trying to sneak an elephant through airport security by simply putting a pair of sunglasses on it.
I don’t know enough about sports law. What I do know, however, is that while Fifa’s sledgehammer solution forces a hasty remedy for players and coaches (the people who are owed money), it also delivers a devastating blow to the club and its fans – yet does absolutely nothing to the actual offenders.
The true architects of this financial apocalypse are likely sipping cocktails on a beach somewhere, unperturbed.
Kelantan Red Warrior was born from a fan-led movement (“Gerakan Selamatkan Kelantan FC”) that was less about a corporate reboot and more about a desperate act of communal CPR on a dying heritage.
These fans, bleeding the club’s colours, poured their hearts and souls into preserving a club driven into the gutter by a few reckless individuals. And for their passion and trouble, they received a giant “red card” from Fifa.
Fifa’s sporting succession rule is a monument to misplaced priorities. It’s a pragmatic solution that forces a quick resolution – but pragmatic is not necessarily just. It’s lazy.
A just solution requires collaboration between Fifa and national governments. It means passing stronger laws to hold football club directors personally accountable for reckless financial mismanagement. This solution isn’t entirely without precedent.
The UK’s Football Governance Act is a landmark piece of legislation that recently became law. It directly addresses the kind of financial mismanagement where clubs collapse and directors walk away without consequence, leaving the community to pick up the pieces.
In October 2024, the Malaysian football fraternity celebrated a landmark arrest of the former owner of Kuantan FA and Marcerra United, who was charged with disobeying a court order to pay salary arrears totalling RM2 million.
Just last week, the Industrial Court ordered Perak FC Sdn Bhd to pay RM1.04 million in compensation to its former head coach Lim Teong Kim for unfair dismissal.
Solutions involving lawyers, courts, and navigating different national laws are tedious and time-consuming. But they don’t hammer a heritage club into darkness.
Fifa’s solution – a transfer embargo – is simple, fast, and looks decisive. But for the fans of Kelantan football, it makes a mockery of any claim that the world body cares about the community spirit that is the lifeblood of the sport.
It’s a lesson in how to protect contracts at the expense of heritage – and it’s a lesson we should all be furious about.
The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of Twentytwo13.
Image from Kelantan Red Warrior Instagram.
