About face, turn!

Again, today, the newspapers are reporting on the Manchester United visit to Malaysia. In an about-face turn, the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) caved in to pressure from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and said that United cannot come in July.

It's not only due to the AFC's own disrespectful demand for the tour to stop but also because of the unwanted comment from FIFA president Sepp Blatter. Huh! Interfering, blathering Blatter again.

And the most spineless among them all? FAM deputy president Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah who joined AFC president Mohamed Bin Hammam in calling for United’s entire pre-season commercial tour to be called off.

This comes two weeks after Tengku Abdullah declared on 25 Apr 2007 that “the AFC have to understand that Malaysians aspire and wish to watch the English team here in conjunction with the 50th Merdeka celebrations.” So much for your dithering leadership.

And in the meantime, FAM general secretary Datuk Seri Dr Ibrahim Saad said: “As a Malaysian I’m surprised. It is out of tune for people to dictate to us how we celebrate our 50 years of independence."