A global Malaysian club brand? JDT take next step in the AFC Champions League last eight

April 16 – Tonight Malaysia’s leading club Johor Darul Ta’zim, better known as JDT, will play what chief executive Luis Garcia says is the most important game in the club’s history to date.

JDT meet Saudi Arabia’s storied Al-Hilal in Jeddah in the quarter finals of the AFC Champions League Elite. It is the first time they have reached this stage of the competition which is traditionally dominated by the Japanese and South Korean clubs in the AFC’s Eastern region before the match-ups with the monied clubs of the West region from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar in particular.

JDT is one of a group of clubs outside these markets that is setting to rewrite hierarchies, reset the accepted order and gain recognition on a global stage.

Garcia, who will be better known to most people in football for his playing career with Barcelona, Liverpool and Atletico Madrid, says the progression to this stage of the Champions League is next step on a path that is being carefully paved by the combination of hard work, attention to detail and the desire to continually improve year on year.

“We have a very clear leadership from his Royal Highness (club owner Tunku Ismail) who wants to see us improve every year. We know what was needed to improve from last year and how to make the next step. Everyone in the club is working in that direction and this (reaching the quarter finals) is the outcome,” said Garcia.

“This is our biggest game ever and we are proud to be here. But we now want to make the club, his Royal Highness and all of Malaysia proud.”

JDT is deeply rooted in it its local culture, pride in its Johor state in the south of the Malay Peninsula. It has the patronage and driving force behind it of an activitist owner in Tunku Ismail who is the eldest son of Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar and is the Crown Prince (Tunku Mahkota) of Johor.

The club has not just suddenly arrived on the scene. Although only acquired by Tunku Ismail in 2016, it has won the Malaysian Super League for the past 12 seasons and currently leads the table this season by 18 points after 21 games.

It now wants to stamp an indelible mark in regional competition. Garcia is the executive charged with making that happen.

Having finished his playing career, Garcia turned to media work as well gaining his coaching and sporting director licences. “I knew I wanted to join a club and I knew I had a lot of the skills in terms of working with groups of people and understanding football’s disciplines. What was missing was the business of football.”

He filled in this gap with an MBA “that taught me how to manage a club”. When Ismail came calling he was ready.

“JDT was already being turned into a global brand and we wanted to go to the next level. We want the brand to be something recognisable to everyone and something that involves you and makes you want to be with. We can communicate globally and you can see that with the global brands like Toyota, Nike, Hublot and Subway who are sponsors,” said Garcia.

To do this the club has built the platform of an active social media base of more than 10 million, and in the Champions League has been filling its 35,000 capacity Sultan Ibrahim Stadium, completed in 2020, with 30,000 fans on average. In the Malaysian Super League crowds are a more modest 13,000 but still league leading.

The ‘feel good’ that has been built around the club “starts with a set of values that are the core of why we are here. We try to find the best players and we are always trying to improve. We want to be our own team with our own values and integrity,” said Garcia.

With a squad that has a strong leaning towards Brazilian, Spanish and Argentinian, recruitment requires new players to be committed to the community. Of course they bring their own social media platforms grow and spark the interest of football followers and media in their own countries.

“There are a lot of players who want to join the club. When they arrive they must be committed and provide joyful football. This is a must in our team. We want to be active, dynamic and exciting,” said Garcia.

While the international players provide the star quality, Garcia emphasises that their mission is also to develop quality local players and feed them into a competitive national team. He points to the club academy that has become a production line of Malaysian talent and which last season won 11 trophies.

But can they go one further to the semi-finals of the Champions League. “Yes of course we can compete,” says Garcia.

“We have talent and quality. We also have structure and teamwork. We will be very organised and we know we will have our chances. Our rhythm needs to be high and every player must win their own battle. As a team we can beat them,” he continued.

To get both the club and team to this stage takes money and JDT does have a serious and committed backer but there is a recognition that competing on a budget of $40 million is different to one of $170 million. But Garcia hits the nail on the head when he says that at a certain point the money is not what wins matches.

A win would release more funds and trigger more commercial revenue. But even the wealthy don’t like to lose money without reason. For now JDT are providing that reason to their royal backers with every game they play, and the gap between profit and loss is closing as the fanbase and sponsor partners grow.

Tonight is a big step for the club and is a first major showcase of the club and its Johor roots on the international stage. Beating Al-Hilal would take JDT a few more big steps down that global recognition path.

Garcia’s enthusiasm and belief is infectious. Don’t be surprised if JDT become one of the breakout teams of the year, and not just in Asia.

Contact the writer of this story at power.l1776414438labto1776414438ofdlr1776414438late1776414438sni@n1776414438Donkeys1776414438eat.l1776414438uap1776414438