KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian football fans may swagger a bit now that the national team's world ranking has shot up by 15 rungs to 130th in a year.
But UiTM Shah Alam faculty of sports science and recreation senior lecturer Sadek Mustaffa is not too impressed and feels that Harimau Malaya still have a long way to go.
He said, based on their last two games — Malaysia beat world No. 98 Kyrgyzstan 4-3 and world No. 154 Taiwan 1-0 in World Cup qualifiers last month — the players haven't reached the level of maturity needed for the world's highest stage.
"The road is still far. Our players haven't reached that level of maturity."
He said comparatively players like Santokh Singh, Soh Chin Aun and Khalid Ali were mature at international level as they had the ability to absorb game plans and were self motivators, which is something hard to achieve.
"Back then, Santokh and Chin Aun were able to chain down Fandi Ahmad (Singapore's star) and read his tactical movements, control him."
While FAM is working on getting the national team into the 2026 World Cup, Sadek said the national body should still learn from the past.
Despite all the talk of the game transforming into modern football through sports science and psychological advancements, Sadek believes that FAM needs to change its grassroots ecosystem.
Malaysia's highest ever world ranking was 79th in 1993 during the era of Dollah Salleh, Azman Adnan and Zainal Abidin Hassan.
"When I make the comparison in rankings, it's a big thing. We have a team of 21-25 established players but the reserves aren't playing on the same level as the first 11," said Sadek.
"This is lacking. We can say that there's sports science and all the technology in the world but at the end of the day, it's up to the players."
Sadek said he is not critical of FAM's F:30 programme: which is for Malaysia to be among the top five in Asia but he feels that a review of grassroots development is essential.
"We need to know what is really happening in the lower tier leagues."