FAM’S PROGRAMMES ARE FAILURES?
Now, Malaysia have to resort to getting naturalised players
THE acknowledgement by the FA of Malaysia (FAM) of the abilities of naturalised players is seen as a reflection of the failure of the national association despite all their programmes to develop football in the country over the past 85 years.
Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) Sports Science faculty senior lecturer Dr Zulakbal Abd Karim likened FAM’s latest move as taking a shortcut which just goes to show their failure with grassroots development programmes.
“The moment FAM came up with the idea of making use of naturalised players, this actually already shows that all the various development programmes that have already been implemented for years are actually not yielding the necessary results and outcomes.
“The failure of the development programmes is the reason why there is a dearth of talented players who can compete at the highest level, which has forced us to consider the option of using naturalised players.
“So before such an option is implemented, I sincerely hope that more in-depth research and studies are done by FAM.
And that they also get the opinions of all stakeholders involved, as it will bring about big changes to the country’s football landscape,” said Zulakbal yesterday.
Zulakbal, who is an Asian Football Confederation (AFC) elite trainer, questioned the quality of the foreign players who want to play for Malaysia — whether they are truly capable of helping to improve the quality of the national team.
“Based on our country’s current ranking, I am of the opinion that it will be very difficult to get really good players willing to play for the national team.
“Even if there is any, perhaps they might not be that good and what is worrying is that such foreign players are in fact at the same level as our local players,” stressed Zulakbal.
Last Saturday, FAM announced that they were studying the prospect of allowing naturalised players to be a part of the national team.
Such a development was announced by FAM president Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin, who admitted that the proposal to naturalise foreign players by granting them citizenship, is seen as the best alternative to help improve the national team’s ranking as done by the Philippines.
However, the proposal has been criticised by former international Datuk Santokh Singh who disagreed with the idea as an aternative to improve the national team’s ranking.
Santokh said the national team must be made up of players who are born Malaysians and not those who have been granted citizenship just so that they may represent Harimau Malaya.