El Clasico LIVE Commentary Show

While the COVID-19 pandemic has hit me hard in terms of securing a permanent job, it has also opened new opportunities for me.

Recently I had the chance to work with the Spanish top tier football league, LaLiga. LaLiga had done a lot of activations around the world to engage with fans during the pandemic and in Malaysia, they ran a Live Commentary Show for their biggest game of the season, El Clasico which saw Barcelona hosts Real Madrid at Nou Camp.

In the show that I hosted, we had two panelists and two fans at the studio commenting on the game without showing the game. At the same time we gave away lots of prizes to the viewers. The show was broadcasted LIVE on Facebook and YouTube.

Being on TV is always nerve-wracking for me, let alone being on LIVE TV albeit just on Facebook and YouTube. But this was something very different from what I have done before. I had to do a lot more of the talking for two hours and I don't even talk much in the first place.

This was a new challenge for me and I actually enjoyed that. The show had over 3,000 engagements and over 30,000 viewers. I'm glad I only found out about that after the show. Those are huge numbers.

I would also like to applaud LaLiga's effort in trying to engage more with the fans in Malaysia. The league is not as popular as the Premier League but they still have passionate fans around that would appreciate activations like these.

Football Banter

Recently I was invited to a local football banter talk show by a top Malay-language sports channel in Malaysia. I was invited as a Manchester United fan as they wanted to have women on the show. The other guest was a Liverpool fan. So without seeing the show, you can imagine what they have in mind.

It has been years since I last appeared on live television and it has been a long while since I argued with anyone about Manchester United and Liverpool. To be honest, I had second thoughts about appearing on the show simply because I could not be bothered to fight a Liverpool fan but I went ahead with it.

The thing is I always feel anxious about being in front of the camera, especially if it's a live show. Especially when this show was live on Facebook. You know how vicious Facebook folks can be. But there's always this fear deep inside me that I might screw up and become a laughing stock, especially because I am a woman.

I went on the show thinking this is not a show that is going to get much attention so I should not think too much about it. Nobody is going to watch women talk football in this country.

And then it went viral and I became a meme.

I had no idea who my opponent was, what her knowledge in football is like or what she does. All I know is that she's a Liverpool fan. To be honest everything else didn't matter as this show is not a show you need to overthink. It's a banter show and meant to be provocative. They just wanted two rival fans fighting but the show took a turn when my opponent said:

"I don't agree that Liverpool won one Premier League title in 30 years. MU has no trophy only Liverpool has a trophy. When MU won it was Barclays Premier League and not the Premier League"

That's when I was stunned. That's when I became a meme.

Despite my reaction, to be honest I was worried for her because I knew this is not gonna go down well for her. The host tried to correct her about the Premier League but she won't back down so I tried to suggest that we change the subject before it gets worse. But the damage was done.

One day after the show, people started sharing that part of the show on social media and she was attacked left and right even until now, at the time of writing this.

This is when things got out of hands. It is normal when women talk football, people don't take them seriously. Worse when they got the facts wrong. So naturally and unfortunately, sexist comments such as 'this is why women shouldn't talk football', 'this is why women should just stay in the kitchen' were thrown at us. 2020 and I still have to deal with these remarks.

To be fair, she didn't help her case by being defensive about her incorrect understanding on the Premier League. That's what most people had a problem with. Then again, people don't need to be so nasty. At the end of the day she is a very passionate Liverpool fan and really loves the club.

Two things here:

1. If you don't know, it's okay. If you're wrong, admit it, accept it and move on.

2. Don't generalise, ever.

This incident is a lesson for all of us. Not just her. But this really reminds me of how ruthless football fans can be and that I was right to have felt anxious every time I have to talk football on TV.

I've had my fair share of abuse on social media when I first started tweeting about football 11-12 years ago so I know how bad it can be. I just can't believe that I'm caught up in one again now. Maybe not directly to me this time but I am unfortunately in the frame.

11 Years on Twitter

Today marks my 11th year on Twitter.

11 years

Over 123k tweets

57,528 followers

I remember the first time I signed up for it. I was 19, in my apartment where I stayed just behind my college. Why did I join Twitter? No specific reason. I was just very much into social media at that time and was actually very active on Facebook until Twitter started to grow.

I remember the first few people I followed - my friends Sabrina, Afiq and Suzie. Only one of these three I still follow because the other two don't really use Twitter. Up until now I have managed to keep my followings below 200 people. I think at one point I did follow more than 200 and then realised I couldn't keep up and my feed was just flooded with nonsense so I filtered it.

Out of the three top social media platforms, I have always preferred Twitter. It trains me how to express my thoughts, deliver the message the shortest way possible. I am guilty of substituting 'and' with '&' and using short forms which I try to avoid but sometimes you can't help it. It matters to me how my tweet looks like.

My style of tweeting and the things I tweet about change over time. My Twitter grew with me. I was probably more daring in the first few years but I have toned down a bit but just a little bit. My tweets are still me. I am still critical.

My twitter has played a significant part in my career. It was never my intention to use twitter to get jobs but somehow my tweets have led employers to me. I am honoured to be followed by some important people with the latest being Tun Mahathir Mohamed - Malaysian's former Prime Minister. Honestly, I don't know why.

Twitter has changed since I joined 11 years ago. They have added more useful features that an avid user like me would appreciate. The thread feature is great because people tend to want to write long form tweets now. The bookmark feature is excellent. People used to have to 'favourite' a tweet to save it but now we can actually save tweets to refer to later. I still think this feature is underused.

Now, Twitter have done so much more for the community. They are flagging fake news or hate speech which is a very important development because truly it can get out of hands. It's comforting to know a social media platform that I love believes that they have a responsibility to filter content so that people won't be misled. Something that Mark Zuckerberg would disagree.

It's been a fun ride, Twitter. But seriously, where's the EDIT feature?