KUALA LUMPUR: Johor Darul Ta'zim (JDT) owner Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim has rubbished claims by Malaysian clubs that they cannot afford to adopt the zeon zoysia grass species in their stadiums due to the high maintenance costs involved.
Tunku Ismail disclosed that maintenance costs for zeon zoysia pitches does not exceed RM300,000 per year which is well within the budgets received by Super League teams.
"To me, maintenance should not be an excuse," said Tunku Ismail during a press conference in Bukit Jalil today.
"The smallest budget for a team in the Super League is currently RM8 million (per year). Maintenance (for pitch) does not cost more than RM300,000, so where is the logic that teams cannot afford this?
"There are even clubs which receive RM20 million to more than RM30 million budgets from their state governments. Don't tell me they can't afford to maintain it, it doesn't make sense to me."
Tunku Ismail stressed that Malaysia will be left behind if it does not invest in its football facilities.
"I have been in the football industry for 11 years and from what I see, one of our biggest problems is we focus our financials on things which are not beneficial," added Tunku Ismail.
"We have to look at the bigger picture, the national team is the first priority because we have competitions in which we have the potential to go far in.
"If we don't do this now and take care of the quality of our facilities, we will be left behind. Our neighbours Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam have already switched their pitches. How long are we going to keep using cow grass?
"We spend on Recaro seats and spend on foreign players but the most important aspect is the football pitch itself."
The Sports Ministry recently offered grants to state governments who want to switch their stadium pitches to use zeon zoysia, which is superior to the cow grass (axonopus compressus) commonly found in Malaysia stadiums.
Tunku Ismail believes this is a good initiative which should be taken up by Malaysian clubs as it will benefit the sport in the country.
JDT's Sultan Ismail Stadium in Johor is currently the only stadium in Malaysia utilising zeon zoysia.
"If you look at all the advanced (footballing) nations, they place a strong emphasis on (quality) pitches, it reflects the management," added Tunku Ismail.
"The Sports Ministry's offer to improve pitches in each stadium in the country is a good step which I hope will be well received by the clubs.
"When clubs have a good pitch it will allow players to push themselves and play to their full potential.
"Indirectly it will help each team improve and the domino effect will lead to improvements in the national team."
Tunku Ismail was speaking after launching the pitch replacement project for National Stadium, Bukit Jalil today which he is partially funding.
The pitch, which currently uses cow grass, is being replaced with Zeon Zoysia which has greater tolerance to shade.
This is important as the pitch at National Stadium only gets full exposure to sunlight for roughly one hour per day. The drainage system for the pitch is also being renewed.
The project will use RM2.3 million funding under the 12th Malaysia Plan as well as funding from Tunku Ismail.
Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh and Malaysia Stadium Corporation chief executive officer Faidz Sanusi were also present during the launch.