KUALA LUMPUR: Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh has promised that stern action will be taken against the individuals involved in the Liga Suparimau brawl.
Yeoh said she was not happy with the incident where two teams — Akademi MZ and FCKL Eagles — brawled in a Liga Suparimau match, part of FAM's grassroots Under-16 age group competition at the New Camp pitch in Damansara on Sunday.
There was kicking and punching among the players, and it was also alleged that a coach had kicked a player during the fracas.
Yeoh said the sports associations had given their commitment when they signed the Safe Sports Code (SSC), and she will get a full report from the relevant parties on the incident before taking action.
"I saw the video, and I'm not happy because these are all junior players and already this kind of incident is happening," said Yeoh after chairing the Asian Games post-mortem workshop at the National Sports Council in Bukit Jalil, yesterday.
"We already have gotten the commitment from the sports associations on SSC, and by right every person who is organising sports events should know about SSC and they should emphasise (it) throughout the games.
"This is something that we will not tolerate. I will get the report from the relevant sport body. And if there's a need for them to lodge police report, I believe it would have been done but I'm gathering the info first.
"My message to all sports event organisers, you should know about SSC, and you should make all the effort to actually promote and remind everybody to subscribe to a code of conduct when you are practising sports. This is not just for high performance sports but also at grassroots.
"That is why when we asked to sign the SSC, we want to uphold and promote the values and this is why we involved the Education and the Higher Education Ministry, as well as sports associations and even gym operators.
"Now people need to remember that they did not just sign a document but make an effort at every event to promote it."
Yeoh said there is zero tolerance for violence in sports and the incident is similar with the volleyball coach-slapping incident in Melaka.
"We will not tolerate this, we have bullying cases in recent times in school. We don't want young athletes fighting and older athletes should show a good example.
"We had the case of the volleyball coach incident which went viral. You should know that with smartphones everywhere, you cannot hide or cover up an incident like that.
"If there's wrongdoing, definitely a police report will be lodged. If a coach is involved, after getting the report, a show cause letter to getting their side of the story, then I'm certain there are actions we can take.
"So once I get the report, I will find out more, and like the case of the volleyball coach, even when it was a coach hired by the school, he was suspended, and he's not involved in coaching anymore."