F:30 road map on track despite setback

FA of Malaysia (FAM) declared yesterday that their F:30 road map is on track despite the national youth team’s failure to qualify for next year’s AFC Under-23 Championship.

Under the road map, FAM had set a target of qualifying for next year’s Tokyo Olympics via the AFC Under-23 event.

FAM general-secretary Stuart Ramalingam said achieving 100 per cent of the road map’s targets is impossible.

“We are proud of the manner Ong Kim Swee’s side played in the qualifiers recently. They came close to qualifying for the tournament proper,” said Stuart at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya yesterday.

“We have to look at the bigger picture. The road map is a comprehensive approach in our efforts to improve Malaysian football.

“FAM have worked hard in the last three months and while we will remain ambitious, we have to face the reality that achieving 100 per cent of the targets will not be possible.

“We are only in Phase One of the road map. It would be a success if we can hit 80 per cent by 2030.”

Meanwhile, the Malaysia Football League (MFL) have assured their 23 stakeholders that this year’s annual grants will be paid out.

Teams are concerned that they would not get their grants following the decision by Telekom Malaysia to pull out as one of the M-League’s major sponsors.

Super League teams receive an annual grant of RM3 million each while RM1.5 million is allocated to each Premier League club.

MFL chief executive Kevin Ramalingam said it was unfair to sensationalise the issue and blame his organisation for the delay as the teams should not be facing financial difficulties at this early stage of the season.

“The grants distributed to the Super League and Premier League teams constitute just 15 to 20 per cent of their overall expenditure,” he said yesterday.