Teong Kim will not be sacked, NFDP to continue

KUALA LUMPUR: Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman has stressed that Lim Teong Kim’s position as director of the National Football Academy under the National Football Development Programme (NFDP) will not be affected.

According to Syed Saddiq, who admitted to also craving for the day the Malaysia would qualify for the World Cup, he felt responsible after the failure of the national squad to qualify for the Under-17 World Cup in Peru next year.

“I did not sack Lim Teong Kim and NFDP will continue. Immediately, after the match, the FAM (Football Association of Malaysia) had sacked Teong Kim as the National Under-16 squad coach.

“This has nothing to do with NFDP and he is still a legitimate director of the National Football Academy under the NFDP until now,” he said in a statement yesterday.

However, he added, he could not escape from the reality that NFDP is facing a severe financial situation at this time.

A special fund of RM20 million a year from the previous government was not received as promised since the first year NFDP was launched.

“As a result of this problem, the MSN (National Sports Council of Malaysia) today have to use their own funds which were taken from the allocations for other purposes to bear the expenses of NFDP.

Syed Saddiq said he was adamant in his stand to re-evaluate the salary package given to Teong Kim which is almost M175,000 per month under the NFDP and did intend to question his eligibility to receive a certain amount of salary.

“People need to know that, prior to this, 80 percent of his salary was paid by sponsors but since the past two years, MSN was making all these payments after the sponsor withdrew. MSN’s responsibility to other sports will also be affected, “he said.

Commenting further, he said the revaluation was not just from the aspect of the management’s salaries but included other aspects of the programme, namely, management, competitions, equipment expenses and the young NFDP athletes.

In a similar statement, Syed Saddiq, who is also Muar Member of Parliament, said he would talk with his counterpart from the Ministry of Finance, Lim Guan Eng, to take into account the need for a suitable allocation to continue to help develop football at the grassroots level.

“At the same time, efforts to bring in more sponsors are being continued and show positive growth. We need more involvements from the corporate sector in the development of national sports,” he said.