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OVER a year has passed since Malaysia became engulfed in the Covid-19 pandemic and the country is still plagued with a series of intermittent MCOs, EMCOs, CMCOs and RMCOs, with MCO 3.0 being the latest addition.
Not only is the population severely hindered by each instalment of the Movement Control Order (MCO), businesses are also adversely affected by their restrictive guidelines, and the sports industry is no exception.
Due to the uncertainties surrounding each iteration of the MCO, the Vibes reached out to select industry insiders to understand exactly how the sports fraternity is affected by these government-sanctioned protocols.
One such individual that The Vibes spoke to is an owner of a fitness and rehabilitation centre. Although he’s aware of how badly others are faring during this tough time, his business has actually improved as a result of some proactive changes.
Instead of conducting personal training sessions to help clients with their rehabilitation and fitness development programmes, the company has chosen to concentrate on one aspect of their business: alleviate the pain experienced by its clientele.
“Since we decided to focus on our strengths to achieve our fullest potential, the business has pivoted and is doing much better.”
While there are exceptions to the rule, it is not surprising to find there are others struggling to cope with it all.
Head coach of the Kuala Lumpur Badminton Association, Farzad Shah, shared that the MCOs have seriously affected the players and their overall preparation as his coaching team has found it rather tricky to care for and maintain their players' mental health.
“The players are currently in an ‘unstable’ condition, both physically and mentally; three of them, who felt that they can’t go any further, have completely quit the sport. Moreover, the coaches are also worried about insufficient funds and the KPIs set out for us is tricky as we can’t be sure of the strength of our training system when we have no tournaments to play.”
For the sports industry, the uncertainty of knowing what would happen at any given time throughout the year is the real killer as the various iterations of the MCO make planning for the future somewhat difficult.
Similarly, for the owner of Football Talent Asia and co-owner of FootballHub, Massimon Giannelli, football facilities both of his operations. Although he is grateful to his team and their parents for the continued support of his football academy as it successfully transitioned from physical training to online classes on Zoom, it is the commercial side of his business that has been adversely affected by the pandemic.
“After approximately 13 months of this pandemic, how would a business survive when it has only been in operation for a quarter of that time?”
Massimo then went on to share a point of view that is no stranger to The Vibes.
“Our sector is always the first to be closed and the last to be opened. Compared to other businesses in enclosed areas, research has clearly shown that the chances of getting infected in an outdoor setting is significantly less.
We really shouldn’t be crucified just because we are a ‘contact sport’ because if you ask me, how different are we from the (Ramadan) bazaars that have been allowed to operate?”
If this sounds familiar, it is because The Vibes brought to light the frustrated pleas of the Sports Industry Coalition on why mass participation sports events cannot be held despite the allowance given by the authorities to stage mass participation events.
Massimo understands that although businesses similar to his do leave a sizable economic footprint, they are not taken as seriously because their singular and disorganised voices are drowned out in a sea of larger, more collated organisations.
As for sports trainer, Sheldon Xavier, who owns a training centre-cum-football academy for kids, he shared with The Vibes that although his business, which started back in 2019, is able to push through these tough times, everything is still very touch and go.
“Although everything is now on Zoom, and people are able to adjust to what they need and get creative with where they work out, it has not been easy for everyone to adapt to the change in operations.”
As a result of his training centre’s inconsistent operating window due to the numerous MCOs over the past year, Sheldon has amassed a backlog of student classes and is unable to enrol new students at his football academy.
“I run term classes, which consist of 10 classes per term, and with the on-off nature of the MCOs, I am still fulfilling classes that were supposed to be completed last year. This prevents me from accepting new clients as I have yet to complete the term with my current batch of students.”
Although Sheldon hopes for better days, he is still taking things as they come. However, not all businesses are fortunate enough to be able to weather the storm.
Barre-D, a fitness studio that strived to merge traditional ballet with elements of fitness, bid their goodbyes earlier this month because of its inability to sustain itself.
When The Vibes spoke to one of its instructors, she mentioned that the closure was a “pretty last minute” thing and, though there are other centres offering ballet fitness, she regretfully adds that they may not have the same “ballet” vibe that they did.
Undeniably, we would be preaching to the choir if we claimed that many individuals and their businesses have been affected by the pandemic, but at this point in time, we all can agree on one thing, that all of us want to see the light at the end of this very long tunnel. ─ The Vibes, 13 May 2021
