Hammam hammered

This is an excerpt from a report by Bernama yesterday:

Malaysia has never prevented the world's biggest football club Manchester United from coming to Malaysia at the end of July, but indeed welcomed them, Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said.

He was commenting on foreign media reports which said that Manchester United chief executive David Gill was disappointed with news that Malaysia had cancelled their match with a Malaysian Selection scheduled for July 27 in Kuala Lumpur due to pressure from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

AFC feared that Manchester United's presence would divert the attention of fans from the Asian Cup to be held from July 7 to 29.

"The truth is we never did. How could we not allow them to come here? It is their summer holiday programme and one of the countries they will stop at is Malaysia because Tourism Malaysia and AirAsia are among the sponsors of the Manchester United games this season. I was shocked ...the AFC's view is too narrow. Mohammed Hammam said Manchester United should not come to Malaysia since the Asian Cup would be on. Manchester United's presence in Malaysia is not a problem, so the AFC should let the fans meet their favourite players as this is one way to develop Malaysian football. The AFC president (Hammam) should not be talking for Malaysia...he has no connection with Malaysia. He has no right, AFC is only concerned with the Asian Cup. Manchester United can come and if necessary, we can ask them to play in another place like Penang, Langkawi, Sabah or Johor Baharu instead of Kuala Lumpur."