KUALA LUMPUR: The acknowledgement by the FA of Malaysia (FAM) towards the abilities of naturalised players is seen as a reflection of the failure of the national footballing governing body despite all the efforts, initiatives and programmes to develop football in the country over the past 85 years.
Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) Sports Science faculty senior lecturer Dr. Zulakbal Abd Karim likened FAM’s latest move as taking a shortcut which just goes to show its failure with grassroots development programmes.
“The moment FAM came up with the idea of making use of naturalised players, this actually already shows that all the various development programmes that have already been implemented for years are actually not yielding the necessary results and outcomes.
“The failure of the development programmes is the reason why there is a dearth of talented players who can compete at the highest level, which has forced us to consider the option of using naturalised players.
“So before such an option is truly implemented, I sincerely hope that more in depth research and studies are done by FAM, and they also get the views and opinions from all quarters and stakeholders involved, as it will bring about big changes towards the country’s football landscape,” said Zulakbal when contacted here earlier today (Thursday).
At the same time Zulakbal, who is also an Asian Football Confederation (AFC) elite trainer, also questioned the quality of the foreign players who want to play in the country, whether they are truly capable in helping to improve the quality of football in the country as well as that of the national team or otherwise.
“Based on our country’s current ranking, I am of the opinion that it will be very difficult to get really good players who will be willing to play for the national team.
“Even if there are any, perhaps they might not be as good and what is worrying is if such foreign players are in fact at the same level as our local players,” stressed Zulakbal.
Last Saturday, FAM announced that they were studying the prospect of allowing naturalised players to be a part of the national team in the future.
Such a development was announced by FAM president, Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin who admitted that the proposal to naturalise foreign players by granting them citizenship is seen as the best alternative to help improve the national team’s position and ranking as done by neighboring Philippines.
However, the proposal has been criticised by former international Datuk Santokh Singh who clearly disagreed with the idea as a supposed alternative to improve the national team’s fortunes and ranking.
Santokh said that the national team must be made up of players who are born Malaysians and not those who have been granted citizenship just so that they may represent Harimau Malaya.