KUALA LUMPUR – With the National Security Council (NSC) postponing the remaining seven matches of the Malaysia Cup due to the rise in the number of Covid-19 cases, The Vibes asks, is this the best solution for our nation’s oldest tournament? With changing times, even the oldest traditions need to adapt to the new norm.
We may not be able to find a solution internally, but we still can think outside of the box and emulate what other countries have accomplished during these challenging times. For example, The Vibes took note of how the quarantine bubble helped complete the 2020 NBA series.
The NBA created a whole new ball game by forming the ‘Disney bubble’; also known as the ‘Orlando Bubble’.
The season started behind closed doors like the other leagues but was brought to a screeching halt after Utah Jazz centre Rudy Gobert tested positive for the virus. The NBA Board of Governors immediately got to work, thinking of a safer way for the championship to proceed; and the bubble was formed.
The bubble in Walt Disney World, Orlando became home away from home for 22 NBA teams throughout the whole season starting August. Everyone who entered the bubble was tested prior and throughout their stay there and was not allowed to leave until their time was up in the championship. The bubble contained players, coaches, managers, staff members, referees, and all grounds crew; not forgetting chefs, barbers, and cleaners.
Strict protocols were made to ensure that everyone on-site maintained social distancing and wore their face masks at all time apart from training and eating. Proximity alarms, that beep whenever people were within six feet of each other, were given to each person. A tight schedule was created to ensure that all equipment and training areas are disinfected between each team.
So, how do we create a quarantine bubble for our Malaysia Cup?
We can create the Malaysia Cup quarantine bubble in Jengka, Pahang for 10-days called the Jengka Bubble where Felda’s RM100 million state-of-art stadium can host all the remaining seven matches.
That stadium is now available as we wrote on 9th Oct.
The UiTM campus in Jengka, which can accommodate around 7,000 people can play host to the eight teams - Penang, JDT, Kuala Lumpur, UITM FC, Kedah, Perak, Terengganu FC and Selangor, along with match officials from the FA of Malaysia (FAM), Malaysian Football League (MFL), Ministry of Youth & Sports, media, medical personnel and even the chefs. This only adds to roughly 500 people, according to research done by The Vibes.
So, here is the proposal for the completion of the Malaysia Cup 2020. The MFL host all 8 quarterfinal teams engage a medical centre with full facilities to monitor and test all players who arrive and maintain their health and the wellbeing of everyone within the Quarantine Bubble in Jengka for the duration i.e. 14 days excluding a pre-tournament quarantine period.
The facilities at the UiTM are more than sufficient to ensure that all the athletes, officials and support crew can be safely housed for the duration. With the technology available, all those in the bubble can move around and be monitored whilst safely training whether in the gym or the football fields available on site.
The best option for room and board at the facility would be a college that can accommodate 500 people and that would be Kolej Mat Kilau 1. This college is: -
>> 10 minutes from Tun Abdul Razak Stadium
>> Has five blocks in total and three blocks that usually holds two in a room, in total accommodating 252 people in each block. This means that even if we only have one person in a room, it will be 126 people in a block, and five blocks will be more than enough.
>> Officials, players, coaches, and everyone involved can basically stay in one college.
>> This college also has the best facilities like an outdoor gym, some sports rings, meeting rooms, laundromat whilst facilities available around the campus are a cafeteria, a guest house, sports centre, football field, sports courts, rugby field, meals hall, health centre.
A typical daily training schedule could be as such: -
>> Assuming every day two teams compete; six teams can train
>> each team taking two hours a day, with half-an-hour to an hour travel time/sanitisation time in between each team's training. Fields can be utilised from 6 am-12 am every day.
The above proposal would mean that the Malaysia Cup would have an opportunity to be completed. The players, the teams, the league, and the sponsors would succeed in completing the 2020 season using a system that has been tried and tested, and which could also serve to be a template for future events in the era of the new norm.
So, we ask Malaysians to look at the above scenario and decide if the NSC should consider MFL’s appeal to complete the Malaysia Cup 2020. Let us know what you think by sharing this story and #savemalaysiacup.
