SAFA to get its own football academy
KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Football Association (SAFA) will set up its very own football academy early next year.
SAFA deputy president II Datuk Lawrence Gimbang said the centre, which will be called the SAFA Academy, will be funded by Petronas.
“This is among our efforts to further promote the game and strengthen football development in the state,” he said when met at the SK Api-Api and SAFA Football Clinic and Carnival here yesterday.
Lawrence went on to say that football in the state will receive further boost in its development efforts with SAFA also having its own training facility next year.
The training facility is currently under construction at the Kota Kinabalu Sports Complex in Likas near here and expected to be completed in the middle of next year.
Meanwhile, it was learnt that SAFA and English Premier League side Burnley FC are in talks for a possible collaboration on setting up the academy.
Burnley FC’s Chief Executive Officer, Neil Hart, as well as three club officials and coaches was seen at the carnival yesterday.
However, Lawrence refused to go into details of them being in the state, saying that while things were progressing well, nothing was concrete yet on the matter.
On the carnival, Lawrence said it was an ideal programme to groom aspiring footballers from a young age.
He said SAFA have “adopted” three schools for the State FA to implement and run their development programme.
“The schools are SK Sri Gaya and SJK (C) Chung Hwa Likas... SK Api-Api is the latest to be ‘adopted’.
“We hope that football development will be further enhanced and that one day, there will be some of them who will go far in the sport,” he said.
More than 50 students from the three schools took part in the carnival, where they were exposed to basic football techniques by the coaches led by former Rhinos head coach Justin Ganai.
Among those who assisted Justin were Johnny Dominicus, Irwan Jamil, Mohd Noor @ Francis, Amsir Abdullah and Matasan Ahmad.
Also present were Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and SAFA vice president Joehari Ayub as well as SK ApiApi headmaster Ag Ghani Ag Bakar.