Through The Senses: AIRMARINE Cup Ticket Giveaway

Honestly did not expect to be at a school on Friday morning given I was notified about this a tad last minute, but there I was. I arrived at Sekolah Kebangsaan Taman Megah, which is located near the Kelana Jaya LRT Station, the closest landmark, at around 10:10 a.m. I looked around to see a few media reporters already sitting down on the chairs provided by the school at the shaded assembly area.

It could be just a little lack of sleep, but it took me a while to realize that the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and Airmarine are applying the same tactic as FA Selangor did before the JDT game at Shah Alam. Getting the school kids excited for a big football match and giving away free tickets to the kids. Hey, if you want to generate buzz about our local football, one of those ways is you got to start from young.

Anyways, back to the event, we had to wait until the kids finish their ‘rehat’ and Malaysia head coach, Tan Cheng Hoe to arrive. It was the kids, who are standard four, five and six students I believe, assembling first. But one of the teachers said the event won’t start until Cheng Hoe arrives, referring to him as ‘Coach Tan’. Thankfully for everyone, we didn’t have to wait long. He arrived just a few minutes later and was given a warm welcome as he signed the school’s guestbook.

After an opening speech by one of the teachers, Pn. Leong who is the Senior Assistant, it was the Airmarine Technical Director, Mr. Gopal turn to speak. He explained about the process of getting the student’s price, which is at RM 25. All the students need to do to get that price is showing their Student ID or IC. He later confirmed that they get to sit at any area, whether it’s grandstand or open seating and also more tickets could be available if the response for the 5000 tickets allocated for students is good.

And then, we have Cheng Hoe giving a short speech. A lot of kids’ hands were raised when Cheng Hoe asked who likes to play football. He even called up a student for a heartwarming moment, briefly getting to know him. The student revealed his favorite team is Liverpool and Mohammad Salah is his favorite player.
After the speech, Cheng Hoe, the teachers and the students all gather for a photo op. Before that though, the kids were all asking for an autograph from Cheng Hoe. Even after the photo op and the event, there were still kids asking for his signature. It was later determined the tickets will be given by their teachers during class.

A brief media interview followed afterward. Sadly from the four-minute recording that I got from Cheng Hoe, I could only make out about 45 seconds of voice footage. I could blame the loud background sound, but this is on me. I feel I didn’t get close enough. However, I did get a lot from Mr. Gopal’s interview so I got that going at least. Seeing that there is nothing else going on next, I decided to head home and tweeted out some details I could make out from those recordings.

Remembering back, I’m actually kind of happy that the kids are all excited and happy about the upcoming matches. Hopefully they are able to ‘turun’ stadium and cheer on the Harimau Malaya. This is a message for the Harimau Malaya: Don’t just let the fans down, please also don’t let these kids down.

PETALING JAYA (15 MARCH 2019): In an effort to attract wider support
for the AIRMARINE 2019 tournament, AIRMARINE Malaysia and ProEvents
International has decided to offer attractive rates for tickets to
football fans especially the students. - Press Release.