The Reds and The Red Warriors

As you can see on our blog, we are fans of the Red Warriors (Kelantan FA) and the Reds (Liverpool FC)…the main similarities I guess are the color (Red) and the fans (Red Warriors Fan & the Kops)…both are great fans, who expects the best and support their team in droves, both home and away.

We are fans to the Red Warriors simply because Kelantan is my home state (and my family share that spirit) and fortunately, the team has been doing very well in the last few years…probably due to a proper football team management by the Kelantan FA (Tan Sri Annuar Musa – probably he’s best outside politics) and of course support from the state government, the Sultan and the people. The Red Warriors fan has been a kind of revelation to Malaysian football in the last few years, setting new standard in ‘fan support’. You could see that Sultan Muhammad IV stadium is always full when the game is played at home (as a result the state government has pledged to build a new stadium in Selising, doubling the size to 40,000 capacity) and the national or Shah Alam stadium are both normally swamped with the Red Warriors fan whenever the team plays on those pitches…you could see the Kelantan flags all over the streets (in fans’ cars) in Kuala Lumpur when the game is in the Klang valley.

Whereas for Liverpool, we have been their fan for a long time, since Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush were playing and that has continued until now. We had problems when Carlsberg was sponsoring Liverpool….we dare not wear the jersey, promoting Carlsberg! Of late, Standard Chartered Bank, where Ibu works, is the main sponsor of Liverpool so that made the support even bigger… which turn Ibu from a person who knows nothing about football into a Liverpool and Red Warriors fan. Of course, the team didn’t do well in the recently concluded season but that is already a bitter history and is looking forward to the new season.

Adik, Pak Su, Naif & Atif are real hardcore supporters of the Red Warriors and Liverpool…they keep up to date information about the teams, followed their progress, watched their current and past games, monitored the tables and read about new signings or transfers.

They also asked their parents to buy the team jerseys especially Kelantan jersey (both white and red), Malaysian jersey (both blue and yellow) and of course the Liverpool jersey (Adik always has up-to-date Liverpool jersey – normally opened for purchase by Standard Chartered staff before official release). And once in a while, we get together for a round of futsal or field soccer to entertain ourselves.

They went to watch Malaysia Cup Final 2009 (where Kelantan lost to Negeri Sembilan), again in 2010 (where Kelantan won the Malaysia Cup for the first time – we were having kenduri dos selamat for Haji that time) and recently the FA Cup final (where Kelantan lost to Terengganu and attended by the Sultan Muhammad V and the Menteri Besar, Dato Paduka Nik Abdul Aziz b Nik Mat @ Tok Guru). Normally, one of their uncles (Pak Lang) would accompany all of them.

I did bring Adik and Pak Su to watch Kelantan vs Kuala Lumpur game in Kota Bharu in February this year, during our balik kampung trip. Sometimes, my cousins would bring my DS brother to watch the game in KB. A week after we got back to KL, my DS brother wanted to watch another home game but no one was available to bring him there, so he decided to ride his bicycle to Kota Bharu!!!! My dad caught up with him at Masjid Keroh (12 km away from my parents house in Kuala Krai), after he was tired of cycling. If dad had not caught up with him, I’m pretty sure he would have made it into the stands of Stadium Sultan Muhammad IV…. that is the spirit of a Red Warrior diehard fan!!!!
So next, we are looking forward to the final game of the Malaysian Super League, where we hope Kelantan will emerge Champion for the first time ever and hopefully the team will also do well in the Malaysia Cup to be played later this year.

As for Liverpool, we have never watched a Liverpool game live (only on TV) and I hope we could do that sometime in the future at Anfield. However, we are looking forward to their visit in July this year (again, the first ever trip to Malaysian soil) and Ibu has got all the discounted tickets she could get from the Bank. We hope that the new season will bring success and joy with the new manager and the ongoing transfer talks. Liverpool could only look into possibly winning the Premier League (or at least in position to qualify for Champions League), the FA and the Carling Cup…no European action but good for building up a relatively new team.

We are proud of our football teams, including the Malaysian team of course. We wish good luck to the Red Warriors for the rest of the season and good luck to the Reds for the new season. We will continue to support good clean football and good fan support….

Gomo Klate Gomo and You’ll Never Walk Alone.