AFC president: Man Utd disrespectful of Asia

[Scotty]

Man Utd disrespectful of Asia - AFC president (http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-asiaunited&prov=reuters&type=lgns)
Manchester United are being disrespectful to Asian soccer by organising a tour of the continent that clashes with July's Asian Cup, the region's top official said on Monday.

The English champions' plans to play in Malaysia on July 27, just two days before the Asian Cup final in Jakarta, show no solidarity to Asian soccer organisers, Asian Football Confederation president Mohamed Bin Hammam told reporters.

"The message is, 'cancel your tour'," Bin Hammam said on the eve of the AFC's annual congress.

[Vermont Red]

Who cares.

[Stud83]

I prefer NFC myself.
Da Bears!!!

What?

[Sapphire]

http://www.seinfeldonline.com/benes2.jpg

"If the Malaysians don't like 'em, the Malaysians don't have to see 'em."

[United Pumps]

Whatever.

[Invincible]

boo hoo

[Cevno]

We are overshadowing the asia cup?If so so be it.
the afc president has always been anti-united.

[jayro75]

United>Asia :cool:

Hopefully they'll pull out of the Asian Tour and head over to the states so I can see them...

[Rakim_22]

I prefer NFC myself.
Da Bears!!!

What?

Must spread.

[littleman]

To me the replies in this thread are obnoxious and highly disrespectful. As a south-east asian I am highly aware of how much we love football there and how we have been a large part of Manchester United's global success the past decade. We also want to develop our own footballing talent pool, and thus our local interests are crucial. It's just the same as how important the smaller leagues apart from the Premiership are to english football in general - that's how the general footballing interests in the UK are sustained.

Well, all I can say is I shook my head in disgust at the replies in this thread.

[United Pumps]

To me the replies in this thread are obnoxious and highly disrespectful. As a south-east asian I am highly aware of how much we love football there and how we have been a large part of Manchester United's global success the past decade. We also want to develop our own footballing talent pool, and thus our local interests are crucial. It's just the same as how important the smaller leagues apart from the Premiership are to english football in general - that's how the general footballing interests in the UK are sustained.

Well, all I can say is I shook my head in disgust at the replies in this thread.
Yes, you've contributed loads.

[Invincible]

To me the replies in this thread are obnoxious and highly disrespectful. As a south-east asian I am highly aware of how much we love football there and how we have been a large part of Manchester United's global success the past decade. We also want to develop our own footballing talent pool, and thus our local interests are crucial. It's just the same as how important the smaller leagues apart from the Premiership are to english football in general - that's how the general footballing interests in the UK are sustained.

Well, all I can say is I shook my head in disgust at the replies in this thread.

http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/5587/carefn8.gif

[Vermont Red]

Well, all I can say is I shook my head in disgust at the replies in this thread.

I'm pretty certain that various parties in Asia helped set up this tour and I'm pretty certain that those parties were aware of the Asia Cup. To me, this seems like a ploy to extort some cash from United. If the AFC president really had a concern he would take it up with those members of the federation who helped plan the tour, except they don't have the deep pockets.

[Sapphire]

To me the replies in this thread are obnoxious and highly disrespectful. As a south-east asian I am highly aware of how much we love football there and how we have been a large part of Manchester United's global success the past decade. We also want to develop our own footballing talent pool, and thus our local interests are crucial. It's just the same as how important the smaller leagues apart from the Premiership are to english football in general - that's how the general footballing interests in the UK are sustained.

Well, all I can say is I shook my head in disgust at the replies in this thread.Sorry for the sarcasm, littleman. I don't know how else to respond to this story because the AFC seem to be coming down on United, when this problem appears (at least from the linked article) to be a struggle internal to Malaysian football between the AFC and the FAM with nothing productive coming from this demand to cancel:

The AFC and Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) signed an Organising Association Agreement in November, under which the Malaysians were to guarantee the Asian Cup would not be battling for publicity with other football events.

It seems like it was a violation of their contract for the FAM to have scheduled the United tour. However, the tour is scheduled, and it seems bizarre to demand it's cancellation. If the AFC wants Malaysian soccer fans to have positive feelings about them, they probably should not demand that a highly popular European team on a summer tour not visit their country. As an American soccer fan, I would be pissed if Manchester United (or even a huge club like Barca which I barely follow) was coming to the US where I might have a chance to actually see some live world class football, and a US football association tried to block it over a CONCACAF tournament. As a United fan, I would be royally pissed.

I'm not trying to downplay this situation; it seems to be truly sucky, but the AFC come of really looking bad with this demand to cancel the tour -- especially from the standpoint of the fans, imo.

[Teso Dos Bichos]

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/6153/babycryingcloseupbx0.jpg

[littleman]

I'm pretty certain that various parties in Asia helped set up this tour and I'm pretty certain that those parties were aware of the Asia Cup. To me, this seems like a ploy to extort some cash from United. If the AFC president really had a concern he would take it up with those members of the federation who helped plan the tour, except they don't have the deep pockets.

It's actually not a ploy to extort cash from United. That's just a strange proposal. I mean, nothing was mentioned about the money. What was key was having ASIANS watch the ASIAN CUP. The forces in the federation are quite split; it's not unified just like it is in all federations. My guess is that the AFC President could not do anything behind scenes and chose to voice it out to place public pressure on the situation.

And Invincible - I am again disgusted. I really have no idea why some of you choose to continue to mock despite my best efforts. It's pretty damn shameful and I'm not suprised given how some of you have no bottle and turn on Manchester United so easily in defeat. Absolutely classless.


Sapphire - I obviously take your point and I know its consequences. That gives you guys NOTHING to mock the AFC about in that manner that you guys have done. Your point obviously stands strongly and most asians care far more about their favorite European teams than asian football - which is the exact point! The asian cup and other domestic activities are partially designed to breed local interest and it happens only once every four years.

The point is this; the AFC president is not stupid. He knows nothing will be done. I'm not sure how many of you realize this about people in power but they are not all that dumb. Their moves are highly calculated and so is this - it's just placing public pressure on the situation and forcing United to at least take this into consideration for the future. It's not going to be United's last trip to Asia.

My personal qualm is that if you guys raised logical arguments like Sapphire did and not the varieties of rubbish that appeared as the initial replies I'd have no problem with it. It's fine. But what happened was insulting.

[Teso Dos Bichos]

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/3296/babycryingbn0.gif

[littleman]

Still going, West Ham boy?

[FIFARay007]

I'm pretty certain that various parties in Asia helped set up this tour and I'm pretty certain that those parties were aware of the Asia Cup. To me, this seems like a ploy to extort some cash from United. If the AFC president really had a concern he would take it up with those members of the federation who helped plan the tour, except they don't have the deep pockets.

Precisely. I doubt the powers that be looked around the globe to see who would have something going on in the summertime, in order for us to F with them.

Although, it shows how important we are. If it were, I dunno, Leeds, no one would care.

All the teams we're set to play over there surely knew that the Asia Cup was going on, and they had no problem playing us. It's just as much their fault. All they would have to say is, "Sorry, we're busy, got this Asia Cup thing going on." We'd go and take our business elsewhere, and everyone woulda been fine.

[FIFARay007]

And littleman, just a note.

Most of us guys (and girls) on here are jokesters. We poke fun when and where we can. Sometimes we're the brunt of such jokes. Either way, we realize it's a joke.

Please don't be a part of the downfall of society by not being able to take a joke. Laugh or don't. But don't take it personally.