WHILE the impact of Covid-19 on the economy has always been focused on the tourism, travel and aviation industries, one sector that is in danger of permanent shutdown is sports, said operators. 

Industry players who have completely shut their businesses for several months now have urged the government to allow them to operate, saying continuous closure has left them reeling.

These were operators of football pitches, futsal courts and gyms who said the continued lockdown will shutter their businesses for good.

They questioned the government’s rationale in allowing economic sectors, which are the largest contributors of Covid-19 cases, to remain open while closing sports arenas, which are not Covid-19 hotspots.

Shazwan Wong, the general manager of Maxim Profile Sdn Bhd, a company that manages eight football pitches in the Klang Valley, said its business has been massively impacted due to the extended lockdown.

Shazwan said the on-going lockdown feels like “rubbing salt into the wound” while trying to nurse the damage already caused by the pandemic and movement restrictions.

He said between last year and now, the company has only managed to operate for about eight months, causing great loss of income.

“Last year we operated for about five and a half months and this year around two and a half months. Total around eight months.

“On average, we are losing income of about RM50,000 per month, per pitch. That makes it about RM400,000 monthly for all eight pitches.

“And we have not included our monthly commitments yet like salaries, rentals, utilities and others.

“We have accumulated debts along the way and while we are trying to recover the losses, we are hit with another lockdown,” the 44-year-old told The Malaysian Insight.

Ebenazer Lasal, the director of Republic of Futsal Petaling Jaya, who runs a futsal court in Selangor, mirrored Shazwan’s view, saying that sports businesses are suffering massive losses due to the lockdown.

“Overall, we have only been able to operate for less than six months.

“Months and months of zero income see many sports centres and gyms closing down,” he said.

Under the current “total lockdown”, only individual activities such as jogging and non-contact sports are allowed.

Targeted lockdowns

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced the National Recovery Plan (NRP) on June 15, which has four phases that will transition in stages.

The current lockdown is under Phase One, where daily Covid-19 cases remain high and the healthcare system is at full capacity, while the vaccination rate is also still low.

To enable the transition to Phase Two, the average number of Covid-19 cases should drop below 4,000, the public health system should be out of critical stage and 10% of the population should have received two doses of vaccine injections.

Phase Three will only be implemented if, among others, the average daily cases of Covid-19 drop to below 2,000, which is expected to happen as early as the end of August, while the transition to Phase Four is expected to be achieved as early as the end of October 2021.

Describing the extension of the lockdown as a “killer blow”, Shazwan said he does not see daily cases declining anytime soon for the restrictions to be lifted.

Shazwan said, rather than having a plan for the entire nation, the target should be set according to states.

He said the daily cases and the vaccination rate threshold should be determined by state and not nation, before certain sectors could be allowed to operate.

“Under the NRP, they have set the threshold for the entire nation. I don’t think that is fair.

“For example, Perlis is recording low daily cases. They should be allowed to continue their normal lives and their borders should be closed to prevent people moving in and out.

“Even for vaccination, if a state does not hit a high vaccination rate compared to others, it then affects the overall figure, but would it be fair to restrict the states with a high percentage of vaccination?

“I don’t think that is fair. This needs to be fixed,” Shazwan said, adding that the government should allow those who have received their first and second doses of the vaccine to take part in team sports.

Shazwan said to generate some income, he even offered his pitches for use as vaccination centres (PPV) for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.

He, however, did not get any response.

“We proposed an idea to the Youth and Sports Ministry to use our football fields as PPVs. They could have paid us a small amount for rental and that would have helped us very much.

“But that hasn’t been done,” he said.

We are not a risk

Since the onset of the pandemic until June 29, the greatest number of Covid-19 clusters in the country were recorded at workplaces, followed by community transmission and then the education sectors.

Based on the Health Ministry’s data, a total of 1,538 workplace clusters were recorded, and they contributed to 166,906 cases.

Shazwan questioned the logic behind the government’s decision to allow economic sectors, which have contributed to most of the cases, to operate while banning contact sports and team activities.

“If the government is willing to take the risk in allowing sectors that have contributed the most cases to operate, then why not consider allowing a sector that has contributed far less or no cases?

“Why shut us completely, as if sport sectors are the main contributors,” he said.

Shazwan added that if there were positive cases traced at the sports sites, then the government should instruct operators to close business for three days, just as they do to premises identified as hotspots under the Hotspots Identification for Dynamic Engagement (HIDE) system.

Ebenazer also felt the sports sector was being penalised despite not contributing to Covid-19 cases.

He said the government needs to review the NRP and allow the sector to start operating sooner.

“Whenever there is a lockdown, we are always the first to be closed and the last to be allowed to open,” he said.

In its latest aid package, Pemulih, the government agreed to provide a one-off payment of RM3,000 to sports industry operators, including gym, bowling and futsal court operators.

This, said Shazwan and Ebenazer, will not do much to ease their problems. – July 1, 2021.