KUALA LUMPUR: The National Sports Council (NSC) has slammed the Malaysia Electronic Sports Federation (MESF) for making an "inaccurate" statement about the latter not receiving full funding from the national budget.
Last week, the government announced a RM13 million allocation for esports under the 2023 Budget, and esports is said to have been a consistent "recipient" of the annual federal budget with announcements of RM10 million for 2019, RM20 million for 2020, RM15 million for 2021 and RM20 million for 2022.
However, MESF president Datuk Ananth S. Nathan claimed that they have never received the full amount as announced.
To this, the NSC said yesterday that the allocation for the development of esports comes under the Youth and Sports Ministry, and such funds are channelled based on programmes that are approved.
"In simple terms, no allocation will be given out just like that without justification. The programmes or activities must have a positive impact on those in the sports fraternity," said the statement.
"The NSC approach over the years has been consistent in providing funds to sports associations that are eligible to receive funding from the government as per allocations provided for in the budget."
The NSC said the MESF claim of having only received assistance for the 2019 Sea Games was also baseless because the federation had received funding to the tune of RM2.7 million in total for 2019, 2020 and 2022.
It said the ministry had initiated a Strategic Development Plan for esports 2020-2025 in 2019 to provide a road map for the development of esports that also involved MESF and several video game-based online sports.
NSC also revealed that MESF was invited to work with Esports Integrated (ESI) to organise sports activities as well as draft bylaws for efficient management of esports in the country, but MESF did not show any interest in participating.
"The MESF as the parent body for esports in Malaysia should take the initiative to promote and develop the sport and work together with the stakeholders for the sport since, as the controllers and promoters of the sport, they have the final say on the type of games, just like the NSC or the Youth and Sports Department and Impact Integrated," read NSC's statement.