Sporting events must yield returns

Posted on 20 July 2011 - 04:21am
Last updated on 20 July 2011 - 08:58pm

by R.Nadeswaran
Citizen Nades

ON SUNDAY evening, the people on the Irish island were celebrating. Never mind if they were divided by religion, politics or by the views of Republicans or Loyalists. A son of the Irish soil, Darren Clarke, had won the British Masters and almost immediately suggested that the Claret Jug be filled “with some black stuff from home” instead of the traditional bubbly, which Guinness would have certainly agreed to send freshly brewed from St. James’ Gate in Dublin.
The Irish are great patriots and wherever they go – from the United States to Australia – they hold true to their beliefs, and to a certain extent, some resentment of the Pomps, who many believe colonised them, creating two states – one independent and the other, part of Great Britain. Hence, when Celtic plays Rangers in the Scottish Premier League, you’ll know which side the Irish will take and what not to wear when entering an Irish pub!
Clarke was the third golfer from the North to win a major, with Graeme McDowell winning the US Open last year and Rory McIllroy winning the same last month. As preparations were being made for a grand welcoming party for Clarke, Northern Ireland’s tourism minister Arlene Foster appeared on television making a claim for the state to host a future British Open. “We have three winners from Northern Ireland and our case cannot be better,” she declared.
It brought back memories of March 16, 2007, when the then sports minister Datuk Azalina Othman announced that Malaysia would be hosting the Champions Youth Cup for junior footballers, which very few in the outside world knew about. The government was forking out RM17 million to a relatively unknown company called Gifted Group to bring youth teams from Europe and South America to our part of the world. I was one of four journalists who questioned the minister on the benefits of hosting such a tournament and what our return on investment would be.
“We are doing it as part of Visit Malaysia Year.” When told that if that was the case, publicity must have been launched much earlier to draw tourists, she thundered: “If you don’t like what we are doing, stand for elections.” This is not an effort to open old wounds but to illustrate an instance when there has been no justification in spending our hard-earned money on sports projects that will bring no benefit to the nation or its sportsmen and sportswomen. As predicted, the tournament was a flop financially and by crowd turnout, and our government was left carrying the baby.
Last year, it has been reported, the Sports Ministry spent RM40 million on international tennis events which were sparsely attended. For a start, we don’t even have a player ranked in the top 200, and tennis stars like Anna Kournikova, whose face was used to promote at least one such tournament, is better playing away on the catwalk and fashion shoots than the tennis court or the arms of pop singer Enrique Iglesias. (For good measure, TV poker commentator Vince van Patton described hold cards of Ace and King as “Anna Kournikova”, because “it looks great but never wins”.
We have all been asked to tighten our belts. The same applies to the civil service and ministers under whose authority money is spent. We seem to be aimlessly wanting to “host” international sports tournaments without even spending time looking at budgets, projected P & L figures and the returns on our investments. When they don’t balance out, hurried calls are made to friendly government-linked companies urging them to do “national service”.
Yes, the visits of Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United to our shores were a huge success, but how many ordinary Malaysians can part with RM100 for a ticket and RM200 for an original jersey? The whole idea of creating the Sports Ministry and setting up the National Sports Council was to elevate the level of sport in our country. No mandate was given for government agencies to act as sports impresarios or sponsor events. However, exceptions could be made if we produce three world beaters in the mould of McDowell, McIllroy and Clarke, or when we qualify for the football World Cup.
Therefore, the time has come to immediately reject applications for the funding of such sports events. There is no need to waste time and effort on even scrutinising such requests. If private entrepreneurs want to make money, they should do so without seeking public funds. Public funds should be spent prudently so that the people get maximum value for their tax ringgit.
R. Nadeswaran joined Irish friends at the Maguires in Ilford to celebrate Clarke’s victory. He is theSun’s UK correspondent based in London and can be reached at: citizen-nades@thesundaily.com