Ahead of Wednesday night's friendly between a Malaysian Select XI and Tottenham Hotspur in Kuala Lumpur, former Malaysia national team coach B. Sathianathan has labelled the sight of local fans wearing the colours of foreign clubs who are facing Malaysian opposition as "terrible".
Speaking to ESPN FC, the 57 year-old also argues that the clash at Shah Alam Stadium is of no benefit for Malaysian football.
Sathianathan was in charge of Harimau Malaya from 2007 to 2009, a period during which he took control of a select team for the visit of Chelsea. It ended 2-0 for the English visitors but the result is not the reason the tactician looks back with unpleasant memories.
"The fans of Chelsea who are Malaysian were wearing the blue colours of Chelsea instead of the yellow and black colours of our country. It was terrible seeing that as a coach and a Malaysian," said Sathianathan. "I felt sad. A coach from Senegal once told me that this this would never happen in countries in Africa where the local fans will always wear their national colours."
Tottenham will take on the Malaysian national team with five foreign imports added from the local league. There has been plenty of debate both inside and outside the country over the merits of the visit with Malaysia starting qualification for the 2018 World Cup in June.
"My opinion is that a national team should not play against club sides. The match agents make their money and really playing against this side does not improve our ranking or improve a Malaysian player because a it is one-off game. If it was a FIFA International friendly, it would help the players stay more focused and try to improve our FIFA Ranking. This is something a player will play for and it would be more realistic for the team to achieve victory. Expecting to win against Chelsea, Manchester United or other top teams will be asking too much from the players."
Sathianathan, who was coach of Malaysia Super League (MSL) side ATM FA earlier this season, wants the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) to come up with a long-term plan for friendly games.
"The national body should plan friendly international games a year ahead when FIFA comes out with the calendar. The coach has to plan ahead if he wants to play International matches and FAM's International Department must help. It is all about planning and with proper planning the national team will play quality International games to help in ranking and also to help the players gain experience and confidence."
The game with Tottenham made international headlines earlier this month thanks to a boycott organised by a leading supporters group Ultras Malaya on social media using the hashtag #SayNoToCircusGame.
Alfadli Awaluddin is senior figure in the group and explained to ESPN FC the reasoning behind the call for a boycott.
"We want matches that can benefit us in the rankings and help us in World Cup qualifiers. We don't want people to take advantage of our national team and to make profit from it. There is no benefit to helping us prepare for the World Cup qualifiers."
Perhaps more important is the fact that the local league schedules were changed to accommodate Spurs and Liverpool, who face a Malaysia XII on July 24.
"We are not against Spurs or Liverpool coming, just the timing of it all," said the Selangor fan. "We are supposed to have a match on May 20 but it was moved due to the match against Tottenham. What happened to those fans who had been preparing for their trips, some of them arranged a day off. What happens to them? My team is playing Sarawak in Kuching on July 25, again, in order to accommodate Liverpool. FAM postponed the league game. We had already booked the flights. The league should come first before an exhibition match."