IT all starts with youth. A nation's success in football is determined by how effective their grassroots development programmes are in producing world class players.
This I would not disagree.
However, over the last decade or so, many countries have taken shortcuts by naturalising players — with or without ancestral ties — in the hope of becoming a major power in football.
Qatar, host of the 2022 World Cup for instance, have been systematically naturalising foreign players, most of them at a young age, over the years.
The Middle East team were rewarded handsomely when they beat the likes of continental giants South Korea, Japan, Iran and Saudi Arabia to win last year's Asian Cup.
Qatar have a dream of becoming a football heavyweight, and they will have a chance to achieve it in 2022.
For long, state FAs and clubs in Malaysia have been implored by FAM to make efforts to develop talent, but only a few are bothered to do so.
Development takes a backseat for local teams who are desperate for success but yet are cash-strapped.
In the days when FAM used to manage the M-League, a portion of the grants to clubs was for development.
The clubs, however, failed to keep their end of the bargain. Instead they used that portion of the grant to pay the salaries of players and coaches.
When FAM came up with the idea of naturalising players (short-term and long-term), many were quick to criticise the national body for the move.
The critics claimed that Harimau Malaya would lose their identity, stripes and all, if the country continues to bring in naturalised players.
But football is not just about two teams on the pitch. It is much more than that. It's an industry, and there are many other things in the ecosystem, including commercialisation.
With or without naturalised players, a country has to attain results which will not only encourage youngsters to take up the game but also raise the business value of the sport.
If there is more money going into the game, it means a country can invest on football infrastructure and development.
In Malaysia, most clubs depend on state and government funds to play in the M-League.
Yes, I agree that the clubs should market themselves and get their own sponsors.
However, what will corporations gain from investing in clubs, except for teams like Johor Darul Ta'zim (JDT) and Selangor?
With companies having ROI (return of investment) targets, most Malaysian clubs are not commercially feasible for them to put money in.
Do sponsors want to have anything to do with clubs who have a bad reputation of not paying salaries?
The National Football Development Plan (NFDP) started as a comprehensive grassroots initiative by former Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.
The NFDP, under Lim Teong Kim then, had training centres across the country to identify talented youth footballers and nurture them.
Luqman Hakim Shamsudin, who is supposedly bound for the Belgian league soon, is a prime example of the initiative.
However, priorities have changed since a new management took over the NFDP.
Teong Kim was told to leave when the NFDP failed to achieve its targets, which included Malaysia's setback in an AFC Under-16 tournament.
However, one shouldn't pass judgment on a development plan after just one cycle. It needs three or four years; results will come after a few cycles.
According to a report on youth academies in Europe, Dutch giants Ajax Amsterdam spend about €6 million (RM29 million) a year to develop around 200 players at their academy in Amsterdam.
Ajax's goal is to produce at least three quality players for their first team every two seasons.
It means that the club are investing RM58 million every 24 months to produce only three first-team players from their academy.
The bottom line is that if you invest little into development, you will get low-quality players.
But if a club have a well-planned development structure and money to invest in grassroots, chances are quality players will come out of it.
JDT have a comprehensive development programme while Selangor and a few other clubs are also investing in youth football.
However, most clubs in Malaysia are not in a healthy state, and thus do not have funds for development projects.
The football system in Malaysia needs a major revamp. And the goal of the F:30 roadmap, launched in 2018, is to take a new direction towards Asia's elite status.
It also includes FAM's programme to systematically naturalise, both foreign and heritage players, to achieve short-term and long-term goals.
Malaysia's immediate goal is to qualify for the 2023 Asian Cup in China. The team have done respectably so far in the qualifiers with the help of naturalised players (both foreign and heritage players) in Matthew Davies, Brendan Gan, La'Vere Corbin-Ong and Mohamadou Sumareh.
And Tan Cheng Hoe's side will be further strengthened with the Kosovo-born Liridon Krasniqi coming in when Malaysia resume their pre-World Cup campaign in October.
Having naturalised players in the national team is not a curse. If they can help Malaysia, like qualifying for the World Cup one day, then we should embrace it instead of criticising FAM's efforts.
Even nations like Portugal and Spain are known for granting citizenship to marquee players like Deco, a Brazilian-born Portuguese player in the 2006 World Cup, as well as Brazilian-born Spanish attacker Diego Costa, and foreign-born Real Madrid legends Alfredo di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas.
But the states must work in tandem with FAM's naturalisation programme by putting more efforts in developing youth players.
States need to do their job in producing players. A bigger pool of quality players, local and naturalised, will help Malaysia achieve goals.