THE Malaysian Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh recently tweeted about Raja Permaisuri Agong’s surprise appearance in support of the Harimau Malaya against Thailand.
Malaysia won by 1-0 in the first leg at Bukit Jalil, and netizens were happy to see Malaysian royals engaging themselves in supporting our sports team after the massive controversy about the lack of seats at the stadium.
The coolest and most sporting Harimau Malaya supporter in the stadium tonight #RajaPermaisuriAgong pic.twitter.com/q3b1ieXV2X
— Hannah Yeoh (@hannahyeoh) January 7, 2023
Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah is seen in the photos uploaded by Yeoh with a thumbs up at the crowd and wearing the famous colours of Harimau Malaya.
Hanny tweeted that it is “the coolest and most sporting Harimau Malaya supporter in the stadium tonight” to which netizens responded positively, grateful for the Queen’s support for the national team.
Most of the compliments to the royals attending the event were brief, such as Twitter user @kcwong2911 statement:
Terbaik YAB DYMM Raja Permaisuri Dan YB Hannah
— kc wong (@kcwong2911) January 7, 2023
This translates to the netizen complimenting the Sports Minister and also Raja Permaisuri Agong.
Netizens also praised Hannah Yeoh for her contributions to the sports industry as the Sports Minister with user @TARISTAR8 stated:
YBM. Alot of credit must go to you for the sudden interest & optimism generated. You have done very well. Syabas
— TARISTAR8 (@TARISTAR8) January 8, 2023
There were also a number of tweets directed at Malaysian football players that had nothing to do with the Raja Permaisuri Agong. It seems that netizens were still concerned about the seating arrangements while the match was on.
The stadium has more than 87,000 seats, but with Malaysia’s qualification for the semi-final of the AFF Championship after beating Singapore, there was a sudden interest from fans to watch the match at Bukit Jalil. But the stadium had already offered some 20,000 seats for the Taiwanese sensation Jay Chou’s concert to be held next week.
The news that there will be fewer seats for the match against Thailand caused a massive backlash against Jay Chou, with Malaysians flooding his Instagram page with racist and unwelcome comments.
Nevertheless, some users ranted against the presence of foreign naturalised talents on the Harimau Malaya side.
Twitter user @ronshamugam stated:
Malaysia and FAM should be ashamed for relying on foreign talent not Malaysia born.are we proud for it.are Malaysian not good enough to win titles so that we need foreign born to represent us and we are proud of it at the same time neglect our own with racism.weird Malaysia
— Thinagaran Shamugam (@ronshamugam) January 7, 2023
Another Twitter user @mlofty73 discussed the enforcement for fans to be seated at their designated numbers:
YB @hannahyeoh, we need your help to enforce in stadium bukit jalil for all fans to sit at their designated seat number. No matter whether it is a grandstand, premium, or open ticket. Seat number dah diberi macam kat cinema, kita follow lah. Kesian lah kita bayar harga ticket.
— mlofty (@mlofty73) January 8, 2023
In lieu of that, the netizen also stated that the seat numbers were already given when a fan purchased the ticket. Similar to how a movie theatre assigns seat numbers to their patrons. Football fans should follow their designated seat numbers, as the others also paid for their tickets.
There are concerns that if some fans do not abide by the rules, an ugly stadium incident like the one in Indonesia recently might occur in Malaysia.
A Twitter user @muradihafiz stated: — Jan 8, 2023
@hannahyeoh
Safety in sport also covers safety for spectators.
You don’t want tragedy like in Indonesia under your watch. Please make sure @FAM_Malaysia take extreme effort to ENSURE all people seat at their designated seat in stadiums@bernama@affmecup @ASTROARENA @PDRMsia— muradi hafiz (@muradihafiz) January 8, 2023
