Manchester United labour through Malaysia and Hong Kong to recoup money they owe to Adidas and lost to the ASEAN All-Stars
Manchester United concluded their tour with a win against the Hong Kong national team 3-1, but it was not a performance that a United fan would want to shout about. In their first stop and match in Malaysia, United played the ASEAN all-stars and lost.
ASEAN All-Stars (AAST) defeated Manchester United 1-0 here at the Bukit Jalil stadium in Malaysia on 28 May 2025. It was a perfect end or gift to the recently concluded ASEAN summit which started on 26 May and ended on 27 May in Kuala Lumpur. If this was a marketing ploy, it worked! Malaysia and the organisations involved – Maybank and Pro-Events – pulled it off well.
Hunger For An All-Stars Game
The all stars game is something different for Malaysians and even Asians compared to Americans who have an all-stars game in basketball and American football, in basketball in the NBA, it is held every February between the domestic players there.
For those in Malaysia, the best all stars game (football) ever was the one in 1982, I was 12 at that time, it was after the FIFA World Cup in Spain. It was an excellent match between the Rest of the world v Europe All-stars, Europe all stars won it 3-2. I remember the brilliant Falcao of Brazil playing an exquisite match and wearing tennis shoes!
It was played in New Jersey, the East Rutherford stadium in USA, which was an artificial turf. Ever since then, we all have an interest in an all stars game, deep down we generation-X starved sports enthusiasts crave for an all-stars game since that great year of 1982.
ASEAN Citizens Come Together In Rare Moment
This was a rare moment for us in South-East Asia to come together and for 90 minutes we did, that feeling is rare and you will never get that primal or visceral feeling ever, it can only happen in a sport and to be precise, football. A 70,00 plus crowd cheered both teams at Bukit Jalil stadium in Malaysia and maybe others watching it on TV in the region, it was fairly an open match. The ASEAN all stars also had some players from Australia too, but take nothing away from the all-stars team as majority of the 26 players were from South-East Asia.
Overall 26 players were used by the all-stars and to think this was a team that was formed from scratch and to add to that, some players who were initially selected could not make it and had to be replaced, shutting out a Manchester United team who used 27 players on the field is something we in South-East Asia have to be proud of.
Interestingly the ASEAN All-Stars kit is now being sold after the match by kit makers Al-Ikhsan, they are selling it online with deliveries starting on 15th June. It is a limited edition merchandise at Al-Ikhsan, a vibrant purple with orange and yellow trims, a smart move by the organisers as it is not the official colour of any national team from South-East Asia, so this neutral pick is another marketing coup and the colour scheme and design is great … at least for me.
Manchester United Sink Further
For Manchester United, it was probably a bad time for them to make a tour, after a defeat against Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League final, a depressed mood has set in to the club despite the Premier League win in their last match against Aston Villa. A defeat with all-stars was bad enough, but a controversy surrounding Manchester United players Amad Diallo and Alejandro Garnacho showing the middle finger after an alleged verbal abuse on Diallo was a PR disaster. This would not have happened during Sir Alex Ferguson’s time, though nobody knows what Garnacho’s excuse was as he was showing the sign in various pictures. Even Diallo, there was a pic of him showing it at the stadium, though this later pic cannot be verified.
Diallo has stated that his mother was verbally abused by a “fan” if you can call that person a fan. Nobody knows what happened, even if this was the case, Diallo could have shown restraint. United are breaking at the seams and all these cost cutting by Sir Jim Ratcliffe is causing instability at the club and a loose structure, with key personnel at Manchester United having been forced out.
What Manchester United fans should be asking is: Why a tour just a few days after the Premier League ended? This is not a pre-season tour (Which will happen later in the United States), the players did not have time to recover from jet-lag and from what I saw they clearly did not want to be here in the meet the fan session. A pre-season tour is when players are getting ready for next season, the dust for last season has hardly settled.
To Settle A Debt
This was a tour to re-coup some money and pay their sponsor a penalty, Adidas contract dictates that they cannot be out of the Champions league in successive seasons, this meant that United had to pay £10 million to Adidas for their absence, so this was why this rushed tour happened.
Looking back, Manchester United might regret this tour, as from a public relations point of view, this might be more damaging than the 10 million. The board and management, however, seem not to care. This tour might have been a death knell to the further eroding fan base of Manchester United.
This is the age of not just club fandom, but also player, where fans don’t follow a club anymore, but just a player. Cristiano Ronaldo is an example of that. Already there is a talk among United fans in Malaysia that they will not support United until Diallo and Garnacho get out of the club.
Every time we think Manchester United cannot get any lower, they do, the players were unfriendly and just plain arrogant. Manchester United have a lot to do in the coming season and even the years ahead, but with a skeleton crew in-terms of squad and even overall staff, this might even take another decade. – NMH
Other articles by this writer:
Malaysian Football – What Now? – Part 1
PICKLEBALL, SPORT’S NEW RAGING FOREST FIRE
Commonwealth Games: Malaysians Unite After Decision Not To Host
Let The Commonwealth Games Begin, But At What Cost?
Subendran A. Ravindran is a sports consultant specialising in fitness, football and track & field. He is a licensed coach in all and former reporter for various journals writing mainly on geo-politics, aviation, business and football. He has a facebook site https://www.facebook.com/kldropfit/ that gives free tips on fitness.
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