AT WHAT PRICE ?

I wrote this story when I was still in NST, somehow I have always asked myself what has happen to this case. Sports Ministry has always said that the file is with Attorney General. But then again there is no follow up. Read the story below.

Tired with all the legal threats made by sports promoter GiftedGroup, the Youth and Sports Ministry is considering taking legal actionagainst the company for its failure to organise the Champions Youth Cup(CYC). "We are now determining whether we should sue the company first or waitfor their next course of action," said its minister, Datuk Ismail SabriYaakob,

He said the ministry was prepared to sue Gifted Group and was nowwaiting for the green light from the Attorney-General's Chambers. "We are ever ready as we are not in the wrong. "We have given the opportunity and enough time for Gifted Group to getthe sanction from the FA of Malaysia (FAM)," he said. He said the ministry would try to recover the money that it had alreadydisbursed to Gifted Group, which he claimed was "more than RM8 million".

As the organiser of CYC, he said Gifted Group had breached the contractwhen it had failed to get the sanction from FAM and to organise thetournament as scheduled from Aug 2 to 16. "They should have got the sanction before Feb 28, which was before Itook over the ministry. But to preserve our good relationship, I havegiven more time for the company to get the sanction and did not cancelthe tournament," he said.

Unfortunately, he said the organiser had no intention of getting thesanction as it claimed that it already had a three-year sanction fromFifa. "FAM later told us that the Fifa letter is only a blanket approval thatis subjected to rules and regulations of the host country," he said,explaining that in the agreement, the ministry would only assist GiftedGroup to procure the sanction. "It means that they should be the one to make a formal application andnot us." Gifted Group recently said that the CYC was definitely off and allcompeting teams in the tournament have been informed.

Gifted Group also said that recent statements attributed to the minister concerning the tournament were inaccurate but it had nointention of litigating via the media and would resort to arbitration.

Read S.S. Dhaliwal's take here

GOD BLESS MALAYSIA