This article first appeared in Options, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on August 5, 2019 - August 11, 2019

With the new EPL season upon us, Bob Holmes explores the Malaysian obsession with English football prior to the first match on Aug 9

Some call it a religion, others an addiction: Even if it is not quite either, football has an extraordinary hold on us. The Harimau Malaya may be a subterranean 167th in the Fifa world rankings but in a recent survey, Malaysia is placed a lofty sixth out of 200 countries for “interest in football”.

For actual “participation”, we were 12th — as we were for “willingness to watch on a phone or a tablet”. No matter how the questions were phrased, our answers put us among the game’s hard core — above Germany, Italy and even England itself.

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