SABAH FA CLAMPING DOWN ON RHINO MASCOTS?
February 4, 2019
Sabah FA recently announced a new mascot for their team which features a bull or known locally as Tembadau.
The new mascot hadn’t gone well with fans especially those who feel that Sabah should retain tradition by using the Rhino.
Sabah FA had used the Rhino as its mascot for years, before a rebranding exercise saw it changed to a Hawk a few years back, and then changed back to a Rhino.
On social media, supporters vented their frustration over the new mascot but accepted that Sabah was now known as Tembadau instead of the Rhino.
Some fans had also voiced out that the use of the new mascot was only temporary and that the management would likely revert back to the Rhino in the future.
However, for the many support groups like SabahRhinos, they continue to use their logo which features the Rhino to the stadium as the rhino had been their identity, and they see no harm in doing so.
Previous rebranding exercises also didn’t see any harm being done and banners of their logo was allowed with pride in the stadium.
Unfortunately, it does seem that the Sabah FA is seeing red over the Rhino this time around.
Videos and social media post have been abuzz over banners depicting the rhino asked to be taken down during the first Sabah FA Liga Premier match at Stadium Likas.
A tweet from SabahRhinos about the incident. Source: SabahRhinos According to some post as you can see in the status above, the instruction had ‘comes from above’.
In one of the videos posted, police officers were even seen negotiating the removal of a banner as seen below.
ini lagi power..temuramah dalam berita sukan kata isu tukar maskot bukan satu isu besar tapi bila sudah di stadium habis semua banner yg guna maskot badak diarah untuk diturunkan hahahaha..bila ditanya atas alasan apa,pihak polis jawab mereka dapat arahan dari atasan huhu. pic.twitter.com/LpyDjiKV4Y
— ⓢⓗⓐⓝⓓⓡⓘⓔ ⓢⓐⓡⓜⓐⓝ ? (@shandrie77) 3 February 2019
SabahRhino confirmed with us that they do not know why their banners were taken down but some fans had speculated that it was due to the Sabah’s push to popularize the Tembadau as the new mascot instead of the Rhino.
This article is brought to us by our Sports Writers Club resident columnist – Cyril Dason.
