Jay Chou has offered to postpone his upcoming concert in Malaysia as concerns over the use of Bukit Jalil National Stadium persist due to the ongoing Asian Football Federation (AFF) tournament.
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Chou’s concert on January 15 has become a subject of controversy due to the progress of the Harimau Malaya national football team in the Asian Football Federation tournament. Concerns have arisen over the recently played semi-final first leg match between Malaysia and Thailand last Saturday (January 7) as only 59,000 tickets were available despite the stadium’s capacity of 87,411.
The ticket shortage was due to the stage structure for Chou’s January 15 concert, which is currently being set up, blocking around 21,000 seats in the stadium.
In a series of now-expired Instagram Stories posted on January 6 (via Malay Mail), the Mandopop star told Malaysian football fans, “Malaysian football fans, I know how important football is to you. I can postpone my concert, it’s not a problem.
“But the most important thing is that you should ask the football association or the hall management if they allow me to postpone the concert. I have no problem with that as long as I can sing for my fans,” he concluded.
The match would eventually progress without further modification. However, if the football team progresses to the final of the tournament by winning the second leg of the match between Malaysia and Thailand which will take place tonight (January 10), the final could take place at Bukit Jalil Stadium on January 16. , the day after the Chou concert.
Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) general secretary Noor Azman Rahman told Timesport (via New Straits Times) on January 8 that if the team made it to the final, the association would contact the management of the club immediately. stage on this. “If possible, we want to keep Bukit Jalil as the venue if we reach the final, but that would require stadium assurances (officials) and huge manpower support to work immediately after the concert,” he said. declared, adding that no arrangement had been made. was done.
However, the General Secretary acknowledged that it would be impossible to remove all concert structures within 24 hours, with FAM currently considering a capacity of 50,000 for the finals.
Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh also weighed in on the matter with a tweet which clarified that Chou’s team booked their stadium on March 13, 2019, while FAM booked the venue on August 18 from last year, further revealing that Chou’s team delayed their set-up for several days to host the January 7 game.
Maklouman
1) Stadium reservation konsert Jay Chou World Tour dibuat 13 Mac 2019 manakala AFF 2022 oleh FAM dibuat 18 Ogos 2022.
2) Konsert perlu 14 hari pasang pentas oleh 500 krew + 185 krew antarabangsa, 45 jentera berat, 200 speaker & 800 lampu. Mereka dah delay 2.5hari bagi ruang AFF pic.twitter.com/45lV5dZLu5
— Hannah Yeoh (@hannahyeoh) January 5, 2023
Yeoh called both events an “international standard”, telling The New Straits Times that either event cannot simply be cancelled.
NME has contacted the organizers of the Malaysian Jay Chou concert for comment regarding the possibility of postponing the show.
