AN ADDRESS BY HRH THE REGENT OF JOHOR ON THE SUCCESS OF JOHOR DARUL TA’ZIM (JDT) FOOTBALL CLUB

It’s never about participating. It has always been about dominating and levelling up from the very beginning.

One question, with all the nonsense which have been written and campaigned all these years, what change or difference have they achieved? Zero! While we have grown, improved, and levelled up every year.

It’s a joke that some of our ‘competitors’ often whine and complaint about not being able to compete with us, instigate that teams should withdraw and that the league is dying.

We don’t see this mentality in other leagues where there is a dominant team miles ahead of the rest. It’s embarrassing, and our neighbours Thailand and Indonesia can clearly see the mentality in Malaysia, which is just quit if you can’t compete. We should be pushing our teams to improve, step up, be more professional and compete within their means.
JDT would never be able to compete in Asia if we had that same mentality as our budget is significantly lower than many teams, including in East Asia but we still managed to finish third among 12 teams this season.

Malaysian football fans should be proud that JDT is representing Malaysia and has a good standing in Asian football. The Opta Power Rankings ranks us at No.10 in Asia today.

The mindset of football in this country is going backwards, because they not necessarily want what you have, they just don’t want you to have it. #elevate #gameisrigged

His Royal Highness Tunku Ismail, The Regent of Johor