Former Harimau Muda player, Syahrul Azwari is set to finally move to Sarawak in an official transfer this season.
The decision was made after both Kelantan Football Association (KAFA) and Football Association of Sarawak (FAS) reached an agreement regarding the status of the player on Thursday.
This has put an end towards Syahrul's controversial move to Sarawak on 19 December 2015 as he was introduced as a Sarawak player without the consent of his parent team.
According to Article 22 of Malaysian footballer's transfer status made by Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), Harimau Muda player must return to his previous team which is their last footballing activity.
In the case of Syahrul, since his last footballing activity is in school level, he will have to return to his state team, Kelantan FA, where he begin his career as a footballer.
As the days go by, fans expected Syahrul to join Kelantan for the new season, only to be shocked by the news of Syahrul signing a two-year contract with the Borneo side, Sarawak FA.
KAFA was heavily criticised by the fans for being too slow to respond and has shown a lack of interest in signing Syahrul Azwari who ended up joining the Crocs.
However, Tan Sri Annuar Musa was furious with the news and blamed FAM for letting it happened. He insisted that FAS must negotiate with KAFA if they are interested to sign Syahrul.
Later on, he brought up the case to FAM Status Committee in the hopes of settling the matters but FAS refused to deal with KAFA.
Secretary General of FAS, Abdullah Julaihi argued that FAS offered Syahrul a contract after he went to Kota Bharu to discussed terms with Kelantan. Two weeks later, Syahrul called FAS to confirm that KAFA did not offer him any contract which means he can begin a contract talks with any other team. FAS assumed that Syahrul has completed his duty, reporting his presence to KAFA, and that he is no longer attached to Kelantan.
FAS are fully aware that they can submit an appeal to FAM but worried that the decision might take longer than they expected and they might unable to register Syahrul on time, affecting the player's career as a result, something that FAS wanted to avoid all this time.
Finally, on 29 January, FAM ordered Syahrul Azwari to return to Kelantan and his contract with Sarawak is null and void. FAS were given seven days to negotiate with KAFA to sign Syahrul, this time legally.
Several days later, while FAS said that they are still discussing terms and conditions with KAFA, but it has been confirmed that Syahrul will join them officially this year. It's a happy ending indeed.
To this date, Syahrul moving to Sarawak is a major surprise. After all he is a huge prospect and has always considered to be the future of Kelantan in years to come. Yet, he snubbed his own birthplace, his own beloved state birth, to join the unlikeliest team of all, Sarawak.
There are several suggestions on why he wanted to join Sarawak that badly. FAM, late payments and lack of playing time are one of the most popular reason among the fans. While it's easy to blame FAM and late payments is understandable, worrying about lack of playing time has raised some eyebrows.
Nik Shahrul Azim was a captain of the Kelantan President Cup team. He was excelled with the youth side and was promoted by Bojan Hodak in 2013. He was criticised in the first few games by the fans and his future is uncertain. Three years later, he is the key player for the senior side.
On the other hand, there was Faizol Nazlin Sayuti who was also a captain of the Kelantan President Cup team, replacing Nik. Many tipped him to be the next big thing. He even trained with Championship side Blackburn alongside the then Kelantan import, Dimitri Petratos. During his debut season in 2014 and 2015, he received the same reaction as Nik did. Three years later, he is on loan at MOF FC, playing under former Kelantan head coach, Zahasmi Ismail.
Another former President Cup player, Tuan Faim, has yet to impress the fans until today. He was a wonderful player in President Cup team but at the highest level, he is struggling. Whether he can reach the MSL level, remain to be seen. On the other hand, Khairul Izuan Rosli is nothing short of a revelation. When George Boateng is scratching his head as his Kelantan side is struggling to score and in need of a decent finisher, Khairul Izuan appeared out of nowhere and scored a fine goal. He is now a fan favourite.
The list of players mention earlier suggested that the future of the footballer is in the hands of the player itself. If you perform well, you will get picked and play regularly. If you played poorly for so many times, of course you won't get as many playing time as you would have liked. As simple as that. Bear in mind, back then no one expect players like Nik and Khairul Izuan to play regularly. Are they playing regularly now? Yes, they are.
The argument about FAM is another thing. Many has branded the Article 22 as unfair to the players and they should be allowed to play for any team they want. If the regulation is not in place, such controversies will not happened in the first place. While that might sounds true, the regulations has been agreed among state FAs upon the launching of Harimau Muda seven to eight years ago.
State FAs have agreed to release their players to Harimau Muda in order to develop further as a player, and as a reward, the players will return to their previous state FAs upon the expiry of their contract with Harimau Muda as well as receiving a compensation fees from FAM. The regulations help the state FAs team to grow as a team, as well as protecting players from ill advise and poor guidance. Many didn't realized if such regulations didn't exist, teams that have the ability to offer more money have the advantage to sign all the players with high salaries but without paying a single penny for a transfer fees. The team can offer the player as many as they want, but the player has the power to choose.
Fans and media alike has also ostracised Annuar Musa for forcing Syahrul to return and play for Kelantan. The word 'forcing' is misleading. Annuar or any other ordinary fans knows that Syahrul did not want to play for Kelantan. All he wants is an explanation from Syahrul and FAS. All he wants is a proper negotiation. If FAS wanted to sign Syahrul, talk to KAFA. Sort it out like any other clubs in the world signing a player from another club. Is that even difficult?
This controversies, alongside the case of Azrif Nasrulhaq means Malaysian football have a deeper problem than anything else. The disbandment of Harimau Muda may have ended such controversies from happening again, but many will doubt that this is not going to happen again in the future. While a proper transfer system might not exactly ended the problem since many improper conduct has continuously occurred despite the presence of the rules and regulations in transfer system, an introduction to a transfer bid and a transfer fee will definitely drive Malaysian football towards the kind of professionalism that is desirable by many all this time.