MHC president defends five-year expenditure

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) president Datuk Seri Subahan Kamal deems that the expenditure of nearly RM21 million for the national hockey team over the last five years as worth it despite both the men’s and women’s teams failing to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

He said of the total, the men’s squad received almost RM15 million from 2015 to 2019, with the highest being for the final phase of the 2019 qualifiers which stood at RM4.7 million, while the women’s squad received almost RM6 million.

“These expenses only cover the cost of paying players and coaches salaries as well as travelling cost, excluding for the league and others,” he said when opening the four-year assessment sessions (2016-2019) for the national squad at the National Sports Institute (NSI) on Tuesday. “It is not easy to find funds but the amount was well spent.

“Compared to countries like India and Australia, their budget is three or four-folds,” he added.

The session aimed at investigating the cause of failure of both the national men and women squads to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics to ensure that the same mistakes do not happen in the next four years, which includes the qualifiers for the World Cup 2022 (women) and 2023 (men) as well as the 2024 Olympics.

The session consisted of 16 panelists which included Subahan, his two deputy presidents Prof Dr S Shamala and Jadadish Chandra Bipin; National Sports Council (NSC) director-general Datuk Ahmad Shapawi Ismail; former players; representatives of the Royal Malaysia Police; Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission and the media.