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FAM set for winds of change

DOES Malaysian football need new legs, new people with fresh ideas and new enthusiasm?
Whatever your call, it is set to be "game over" for many of the old guard this Saturday when the FA of Malaysia (FAM) holds its congress-cum-elections.

The local football fraternity can expect "winds of change".

I use the phrase "winds of change" because only four incumbents of the 27 nominated candidates will be contesting in the elections.
While Sultan Ahmad Shah, the president retains his seat uncontested, an intense battle is brewing for the two deputy presidents and four vice-presidents posts.

Five candidates, including incumbent Datuk Seri Redzuan Sheikh Ahmad, will fight it out for the two deputy presidents posts while eight aspirants will contest the four vice-presidents seats.

The delegates must think wisely before voting as their decisions will chart the course of Malaysian football at least till 2014.

And those elected should deliver in the coming term and not follow in the footsteps of those who have come, made empty promises and are now gone.

Malaysian football has suffered because of those few, so delegates must make the right choices this Saturday.

Only those who can truly dedicate their time to the game and are really on the ball, deserve a seat in Wisma FAM. Malaysian football cannot afford to have those with self-interest running the sport.

FAM, since its last elections in 2007, has made both good and bad decisions.

One of its better ideas was to have full-time youth national teams, and FAM should be praised for having the Young Tigers compete in the Premier League for three seasons.

However, some selfish state FAs are still against this move despite the team having made significant progress. These affiliates want the Young Tigers to play for their state teams in the M-League. However, FAM, much to it credit, has refused to budge on the matter.

Some state FAs even used their "veto" power in the FAM council last December in the hope of prevemting the Young Tigers from playing in the Super League.

These FAs, regrettably, managed to sabotage FAM's Super League plans for the Young Tigers.

This led to FAM and the government spending millions of Ringgit to send the team to Slovakia for a three-month stint.

The soon-to-be-elected executive committee must carry on with the good work. The big worry is that Malaysian football will struggle again in the backwaters if the wrong people are voted in.

Also, FAM deserve all credit for the national Under-23 team's success in winning the gold medal at last year's Laos Sea Games.

The parent body made the right move to hand over the coaching job to the no-nonsense K. Rajagobal for the Laos assignment and gave him full support and assistance, including arranging high quality matches for the team ahead of the Sea Games.

However, the same cannot be said of the team's preparations for the Asian Games in November. They have not been playing quality international matches regularly this year and this could derail their quest.

Sending the team to Turkey for quality matches during the recent World Cup was a questionable move. The team travelled all the way there only to play against selection sides, which was a waste of time and money.

The removal of Azraai Khor as coach of the national Under-21 side in such a controversial manner remains a mystery. Until today, many people, except for those in FAM, still do not know why Azraai was relieved of his duties.

On the issue of barring foreign players from the M-League, rich state FAs will be happy to import players but the others will want the ban to stay.

No foreign players, no crowd -- that is the result of this move. The decision has left many teams playing in near empty stadiums, and operating at a loss because gates collections have dwindled.

The newly elected FAM members must seriously look at lifting the ban on foreign players as the M-League has become boring and is no longer financially viable for teams to take part.

FAM must also make it compulsory for all its affiliates to have youth development programmes and state-level leagues. Each club must have various age-group teams to ensure a bigger pool of quality players.

Previously, a former major sponsor of the M-League used to allocate a sum for each state to organise its domestic leagues. But once the funding stopped, most state FAs took the easy way out by stopping its leagues.

State FAs must learn to be financially independent and make efforts to raise their own funds instead of holding out their palms to FAM.

Read more: NST

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