Why I Can’t Wait For LFC To Arrive In KL

Fanatical Liverpool supporter Sheldon Xavier can't wait for Liverpool to arrive in his home city of Kuala Lumpur as he explains to www.lfctour.com

Multi-racial Malaysia, with an estimated population of 27.5 million and with a total landmass of 329,847 square kilometers, is a footballing mad nation. And make no mistake to this fact, for its fair to say now that three quarters of that population makes up the 12th man syndrome for a very famous team with fans tuning in on the telly and rallying up the battle cry in any game that the Real Red plays in. And that team would be the mighty Liverpool Football Club!

The passionate and knowledgeable Liverpool fans in Malaysia, who come in every age, size, gender and race, have been in a dizzy-frenzy, pinching themselves with delight at the thought of watching the Real Reds live and in the flesh on home soil for the very first time. This, after the announcement of the Asia tour, sponsored by that big, strong and friendly banker in Standard Chartered. All thanks to them indeed!

And the buzz is hyped up by the fans at every minute as the day comes closer for them to watch their beloved Real Reds play against the Malaysian National team. Messages and banter are active and have been flooding the message forums on the social media websites, exciting conversations are often made by people who play the game at the football pitches and for some strange reason, I have even overheard one particular old lovely couple at the park asking her son the other day (much to the boy's bemusement and to my amusement) if a certain Terry McDermott was still playing with the tight shorts and the afro!

Liverpool FC will be very well received in Malaysia. And much to the envy of our saucy rival Manchester United supporters who could hardly string more than 2 songs together in an entire match nor fill up the stadium after their lot came over twice before! The Bukit Jalil Stadium will this time be buzzing and filled up in anticipation the very moment when the turnstile gates are opened. No disrespect to Thailand and Singapore who have hosted the occasion splendidly well before, Malaysia will take it a notch further to have their own fans paint the entire stadium and the team hotel with the signature colors of red! And in a carnival like atmosphere in true Liverpool tradition, the fans will churn up the chants and songs that would even make the ardent followers from the Kop End proud!

I will therefore urge the Liverpool team to soak up the atmosphere and the warm hospitality that will befittingly greet every staffing member of this famous team from the very moment when they step off the plane at the KLIA.

They will be treated with God-like status and will see for themselves fans arriving in the thousands right from the young to the very old with a fair bit of them behaving like kids in a candy store, hysterical women holding up the placards with the messages of love and marriage proposals, nannies on their knees and many more just being in awe when seeing this famous team in the flesh.

And these ardent fans will welcome the team with songs and with chants with, inevitably, 'You'll Never Walk Alone' being the ever favorite signature tune that will be heard over and again during the course of the tour.

On behalf of every Liverpool and football fan here in Malaysia, we now can't wait to welcome you on Malaysian soil with our traditional warmest greeting of "Selamat Datang" (translated as Warm Welcome)! And may you leave our shores with pleasant memories from your stay here.