Despite the sadness of Harimau Malaya losing 3-0 to Thailand in the second semi-final of the AFF Cup 2022, there was a moment to be proud of that happened at Thammasat Stadium, Bangkok yesterday.
Despite losing, Ultras Malaya (UM) never stopped giving support and immediately after the match yesterday they were seen singing ‘Sawadikap! Sawadikap! ! Hey! Hey! Thailand!’ in front of the Thai players.
The singing or ‘chant’ is a sign of respect given by UM to the Thai team.
The action also got the attention of the Thai players where they also joined in the performance by giving applause led by Theerathon Bunmathan.
Not only that, their action yesterday also attracted the attention of the International Football Federation (FIFA) and the Asean Football Confederation (AFF) where they shared the video of the performance on their social media pages.
FIFA has praised UM’s actions and described the action performed by UM as a beautiful moment even though the national squad has lost.
It is no exaggeration to say that UM is the best football supporter in the ASEAN region with their unwavering support for the national team.
This statement does not need to be disputed anymore because the average user of social media from various countries also praised the actions performed by UM during this AFF Cup campaign.
Before this, UM was also praised by a number of Indonesian supporters where they described UM as never getting tired of standing up and singing their hearts out throughout the match and that was something they had never seen before.
They also stated that UM is a very important backbone for the national squad, and a difficult ‘enemy’ for the opposing team.
With the solid support of UM and other Malaysian fans at every match, Bukit Jalil National Stadium (SNBJ) managed to record the highest attendance record for the group stage of the AFF Cup 2022 with a total of 65,147 attendees.
So, it’s no wonder that before the opponents also praised UM and Malaysian supporters when they visited SNBJ.
In the meantime, the manager of the Thai football team, Madame Pang also described the atmosphere at SNBJ as great with enthusiastic supporters who will put pressure on the opposing players.
Starting to enliven the national football arena since 2007, UM went through various ups and downs while making them more mature and now recognized as the best supporters in the ASEAN region.
Congratulations to UM and it is hoped that they will continue their support for the Harimau Malaya squad until any time.
Credit Article : Harimau Malaya
