FAM to focus on youth development
PETALING JAYA: The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) wants state football associations and clubs to be fully committed and dedicated to work closely with the national football governing body to improve the youth development structure in the country.
FAM president Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim urged the affiliates to organise age group competitions and state level leagues as well as develop football infrastructure, with a higher allocation to be given by FAM from broadcasting rights.
Tunku Ismail pointed out that, under the current structure, there is no link between top flight competitions after the third tier FAM Cup and grassroots level competitions.
“We have studied the La Liga module, Italy league and in other parts of world, including Thailand...they have youth development in each district, school and teams to encourage more community teams and businessmen to own club because at the end of the day, the future of Malaysian football will always fall on youth development.
“All the competitions around the states and districts need to somehow tally and get the best to qualify to the Division 4 and 5 to be introduced from next year. We (FAM) have to put a lot of energy and dedication to get teams and clubs to embrace our policy and philosophy,” he said after an FAM Executive Committee meeting at Wisma FAM here yesterday.
The Division 5 will kick off in 2018 to identify teams for Division 4, which would begin in 2019 with 24 teams competing.
The Tengku Makhota Johor said FAM will work closely with National Football Development Programme (NFDP) to better utilise the funds.
“We feel that with the budget that NFDP has, they should play a bigger role and focus on the thousands of children, not only 40 something. But that is something we are working with them to improve the youth development structure and get more development games in school,” he said.
Tunku Ismail also wanted the affiliates to take the club licensing seriously, especially in the financial auditing as it might jeopardise the relationship with the sponsors as they wanted to know how the money is spent.
At yesterday’s meeting, FAM secured RM3.9 million sponsorship from Yakult (M) Sdn Bhd for three years beginning January 2018. - Bernama