Did FAS act too soon by ‘resting’ Anai and Usop?
March 5, 2019
After five games, Anai Igang and assistant David Usop were both rested.
In Malaysia, head coaches are rarely fired, and with many of them being ‘rested’ instead.
While we are not sure why the term ‘rest’ is used, we do notice a trend where coaches would be asked to take over other duties in the club or Football Association once they are ‘rested’ from coaching the main team.
Probably this is a way to avoid paying hefty compensation if a coach is sacked. ‘Resting’ a coach keeps the person in the organization hence keeping him employed and escaping any severance from contract termination.
In the case of Anai and David, many fans had felt that the decision by Football Association of Sarawak (FAS) was right as Sarawak had won only one of the five games in the Liga Premier, hence making our opinion an unpopular one.
According to a statement by Football Association of Sarawak President Posa Majeis, the decision to rest Anai and David effective immediately was to ‘improve results and save Sarawak football in the Liga Premier 2019”.
Indeed, if one was to roughly see the results from each of the five matches, Sarawak had not done great. In fact, that is an understatement to say the least.
However, Sarawak’s poor form isn’t as bad if compared to PDRM FA who now sits at the bottom of the table after five games, with only one point to show.
Other bottom table teams are also not performing as expected.
Negeri Sembilan only had 5 points from 5 matches. UKM and Kelantan all have only accumulated 4 points up to game week 4, and Pulau Pinang have only gained 4 points after game week 5. PDRM, as mentioned before, only has one point from five matches.
All these teams have not rested their coaches despite the less favourable results, and the fact is there are still 15 more matches to determine if a team makes or breaks it in the Liga Premier.
It is likely these teams realize that five games is too soon to determine their fate in the Liga Premier as like Sarawak, they still can survive the league with a couple of favourable results.
That said, unless FAS’s Key Performance Index (KPI) for both Anai and David is to win the league, it does make us wonder if FAS had acted hastily in deciding Anai and David’s fate after just five games because everyone knows that change in head coaches can either break or make a team.
Also Read:
Sarawak FA needs a strong midfielder to shine
Sarawak FA needs to depend less on Bobby Gonzales if they want to beat Sabah FA
Sarawak fans upset Sarawak FA failed to play all imports against Sabah FA
This article is brought to us by our Sports Writers Club resident columnist – Cyril Dason.
