On Thursday, Malaysia shielded on striking a deal with Luis Suarez, the Barcelona footballer to assist in empowering tourism after a protest MP criticized the move of signing a contract with a player notorious for biting rivals.Published on : Friday, December 1, 2017
On Thursday, Malaysia shielded on striking a deal with Luis Suarez, the Barcelona footballer to assist in empowering tourism after a protest MP criticized the move of signing a contract with a player notorious for biting rivals.
Government agency Tourism Malaysia inked the one-year deal in early November, anticipating that utilizing the Uruguayan professional footballer in marketing campaigns would help in luring more visitors to the tropical country.
Though Suarez is known as one of the world’s best players, he had been a subject of major argument for biting his rivals on ground. For four months, the fierce striker was suspended from all football-related activities after biting Giorgio Chiellini, the Italian defender during the 2014 World Cup. Also, he faced bans in 2010 and 2013 for sinking his teeth into rivals.
On Thursday, lawmaker Hee Loy Sian from the opposition People’s Justice Party questioned Nazri Abdul Aziz, the Tourism Minister in parliament that why the footballer was chosen knowing Suarez’s controversial track record.
Later he informed that AFP had no issue in using foreign players to endorse Malaysia but the Uruguayan was not the right choice.
“We have a lot of better candidates,” he said.
However, Nazri safeguarded the decision, saying Suarez’s huge social media fan following would help the country to attract more foreign visitors to Malaysia.
“If he is that bad, he would not have 25.3 million followers on Instagram — if he is bad, people won’t follow him,” he told parliament.
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