Taking issue

Keo Sokngorn receives his Best Player cheque

I find it increasingly difficult to agree with virtually every decision emanating from the football federation in Cambodia. The big one for me was the decision to reintroduce the play-off system to decide who would be the league champions. That simply stinks for a football traditionalist like me. Have your play-offs to decide minor relegation or promotion places or cup competitions but never to decide the destination of the country's championship title. It's wrong whichever way you look at it. That said, the FFC are also responsible for choosing the other end of season awards such as the season's best player. Last time around they bamboozled everyone, including the player himself, by choosing Chea Samnang from Preah Khan Reach. No-one saw that coming, as the officials completely overlooked a long list of players with far more pressing credentials. Blow me down, if they don't go and do the same again this season. You'd think that the captain of the title-winning team, Boeung Ket, might have a shout at the award, but again there have been players who've performed to a higher standard and with more consistency this campaign. The prize was picked up by Keo Sokngorn yesterday. The player had one of his best games too but over the course of the season, he has not shone, either for club and country, certainly not as much as he did when he picked up the same award two years ago. In his own team, Friday Nwakuna, who has looked twice the player he was in his previous spells in the C-League, and combative, shoot-on-sight Sumaila Momoh have been far more outstanding. For Naga, Chuon Chum changed his name and changed his game, and was in rampant form throughout the season, whilst two more Preah Khan youngsters, Moul Daravorn and Nen Sothearoth, have come on leaps and bounds this year. Injuries to two of the country's best players, Khuon Laboravy and Kouch Sokumpheak, have allowed others to shine in their absence such as Sos Suhana, Sokngorn's younger brother Keo Sokpheng and Ek Sopheap from Kirivong. There's no argument when it comes to Boeung Ket collecting the top scorer (Friday Nwakuna), best coach (Prak Vuthy) and best goalkeeper (Penh Bunchhay) awards but I've watched most of the C-League matches this season and must take issue with the FFC's choice of best player.
PS. I forgot that the FFC also awarded the best referee award to Thong Chankethya, another decision I completely disagree with. Chankethya is a referee I've written about many times, he's card happy and definitely doesn't follow the old adage that a good referee is one we don't see when we watch a match. He appears to love making decisions that impact on games and yesterday's dismissal of Sin Dalin was another case in point. If I took a poll amongst the C-League players as to which referees they least want to be in the middle; I reckon Chankethya will be right up there, alongside Khuon Virak and Yien Kivatanak.