KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian football fans couldn’t resist injecting some humour into the Malaysia vs India match at the newly upgraded Bukit Jalil National Stadium during the Pestbola Merdeka tournament today.
Several tweets were shared by netizens on Twitter as they made fun of and criticised the poor condition of the newly installed Zeon Zoysia pitch.
“I had high expectations for this field to reach the level of the English Premier League (EPL), and this is what it ends up looking like? If the pitch were at the EPL level, Arif Aiman and Faisal Halim would surely be scoring more goals,” one netizen commented.
“Dude, Malaysia has allocated its budget to so many things, but where is the budget for repairing the national stadium? Looking at the condition of the pitch today, it seems more like a paddy field than a football pitch!” remarked another.
Meanwhile, Johor Crown Prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim responded to a netizen’s comment on Twitter, saying that the pitch needs more time for its roots to establish themselves in the ground.
“That field should be given more time for its roots to become strong, like the Sultan Ibrahim Stadium field. But the national team wants to use it as soon as possible.
“This decision is up to the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and the stadium. If it were up to me, I would give it more time, at least another 2 or 3 months.
“This contractor is the same one that worked on the JDT field,” he said in a tweet.
Last year, Tunku Ismail agreed to sponsor the renovation cost to replace the cowgrass pitch at Bukit Jalil with Zeon Zoysia as a gift to the Harimau Malaya after the pitch was observed to be in poor condition during the 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers.
The current Zeon Zoysia grass at the stadium is also used at the JDT-owned Sultan Ibrahim Stadium in Iskandar Puteri.
It is understood that the estimated cost of renovating the pitch was RM1.5 million, and it takes RM300,000 to maintain its quality.
Perbadanan Sukan Malaysia has spent RM4.7 million since June last year as the stadium underwent extensive refurbishment, including work on the replacement of the field drainage system, the stadium’s electrical system, the protection fence, locker rooms, and restroom facilities. — October 13, 2023