I was a bit talented in football and played for the school. However, SPKI was only keen on field hockey at that time. They concentrated so much on hockey, for both boys and girls team. As a result, both hockey teams emerged as champions for under 12 years old hockey competition for Southern Kuala Terengganu. Our football team have not done anything better than a loser in all matches then.
I used to play football in my village. Sometimes we organized some friendly football matches between our village team and the teams from adjacent villages. However, we did not have a real football field for such matches. We were prohibited from using the school's football field. Therefore, any ground which was flat and away from houses will be cleaned together to create a football field. Sometimes the field was within the coconut orchard. So, while playing football, we have to be careful and cautious about the coconut fruits above our heads. When dribbling the ball we have to ensure ourselves not collide or hit the coconut trunks. One thing for sure, we play football with bare foot. Soccer shoes were very expensive at that time and it was difficult to find too. But we used to collect some money among ourselves for the purpose of buying new ball if the old one got rotten.
We played football every evening, starting from 5.30pm, regardless whether it was raining or not. We played the game with seriousness and full commitment. It was our practice to play adamantly and never surrender easily to our opponents. Sometimes we got hurt and injured for foul play, but never have brawls or fights in our games for such injuries. Why? It was because we do not have referees in our games. The field was not up to the size or similar with the standard football ground. It did not have sidelines. The ball is considered out of play if it hit bushes or jumped over the bushes beside the playing ground. The woodwork or the goal posts were made from hard bamboo stems which were taken from bamboo orchard behind my house. When fixed as the goal posts, the bamboo was not really looked horizontal anymore. The middle section will bend down a bit. But, we just did not care about it and we continued to play football in accordance with the facilities that we have had in our surroundings.
Sometimes we attended the Stadium Sultan Ismail Shah in Kuala Terengganu to watch football matches involving the team of the state against teams from other states. Normally the matches were played in every Friday or Saturday evening commencing at 4.45pm. At that time, the stadium was not yet equipped with floodlights or spotlights for night matches. So, the Malaysia Cup football campaign have all their matches to be played during weekends in the evening.
I have attended plenty of the matches held in the Stadium. Ticket fee was RM2 for adult and 50 cents for kids above 12 but under18 years old. Since I was below 12, I have enjoyed a privilege of the free minor tickets to watch the matches. I knew some state's player at that time such as Yahya Jusoh, Abdul Rahman, Sulaiman Rejab and the younger stars like Abdah Alif, Marzuki Ismaun and Abdullah Ali. I also knew some players from other states such as Shukor Salleh from Penang, Namat Abdullah and Shaharuddin Abdullah from Perak, Ahmad Shah Norbit and Mokhtar Dahari from Selangor. Those players had played in front of me when they visited the host Terengganu in Malaysia Cup matches within the years of 1968 up to early seventies.
I remember the football matches between Terengganu and Kelantan always ended with brawls among the supporters of the two teams. I just cannot understand why the meeting of the two neighbors in football matches always became an ominous situation between their supporters. Even though the games between the two teams ended with stalemates but then, such results were unraveling the altercation among the supporters which sometimes had provoked the players on the field to commit fouls or assaults during and after the games.
But intensified situations between the neighboring teams also happened in our modern football. In English football, the club like Liverpool has Everton as the merseyside challenger for numerous years already. Manchester United has Manchester City as its neighboring opponent. Likewise, AC Milan and Inter Milan in Italian football, Real Madrid and Athletico Madrid in Spanish football.
If there was a match between Terengganu team and Kelantan team, my father will not miss the game. He will ask me to accompany him to watch the game at the Stadium. He used his old Raleigh bicycle to go to the Stadium with me as the pillion rider at the back. He had a little questions and resistance form my mother. But most of the times he kept quiet and ignored the insinuation with naughty smiles to my mother. My father was the supporter of the Trengganu team and many years later on has became a Liverpool football supporter during the era of Kevin Keegan and Kenny Dalglish to the era of Ian Rush and Craig Johnston.
At that time (within 70s) we used to watch television at our neighbor's house. Story about Liverpool stars always appeared in the tv news, telling about their successful English Premier League Cup campaigns year after year ( Liverpool won EPL Cup 5 times for the seasons of 72/73, 75/76, 76/77, 78/79 and 79/80 for the 70s). The club also holding the record as the most winning English Premier League champions with 18 times which was leveled by Manchester United 2 years ago. But, Liverpool is still holding the record of the most victorious English team in European Champions League Cup, winning 5 times.
Oh I missed you so much my father...the true supporter of Terengganu FC and Liverpool FC!!!
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