It was one messy affair at the team managers meeting of the Milo-NSC Junior Hockey League at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil today.
From fixtures that made no sense to over zealous manner of conducting the meeting right down to basic fundamentals of answering queries from team managers.
Lets take it one step at a time and start with fixtures that really take the cake.
Just because of the failure to address the issue of teams from the same school needing to play the first match to avoid the issue of "goals" coming into play, in this case from SSTMI, the MJHL will now start a day earlier, on Jan 10 instead of the next day.
Then the teams are required to play three consecutive matches. While that may be okay for a carnival like tournament, just look at this scenario - SMKDMT play a match in Tampin on Friday, play in Kuantan on Saturday and then rush back to play in Tampin on Sunday.
There are just so many mistakes or incompetency in drawing up the fixtures that one wonders the person responsible in drawing them up actually knows the fundamentals of how fixtures should be drawn up.
And while the rules clearly spell out that first mentioned teams are home teams, the answer received when it was raised smacked arrogance.
Then we look at the quarter finals where six out of eight teams in Division One qualify from Division One while 20 teams from Division Two vie for two spots. This is a ridiculous decision and when the stakeholders, being the teams, raised the issue, the answer they got was the Competition Committee has decided and no changes
Rightfully it should be taken back to the Committee for deliberation and even consider a play off between the sixth team in Division One and third in Division Two.
But when people who overstay their welcome and do not know what the MJHL is all about and try to assert their authority, then it's MHC that faces the wrath of the teams.
And in the end it's hockey that suffers.
Lets not even go into the issue of subsidy where the Secretary opts to blame the previous administration by saying files are missing.
You just need to walk out of your office and ask the staff in charge of accounts what the subsidy was last season.
But perhaps the person was too busy plotting with others how to destroy others when they are incompetent in the first place as evident today.
It sure is a Happy New Year.
