KUALA LUMPUR: Former Malaysia Rugby (MR) president Datuk Shahrul Zaman Yahaya hopes the national body's new leadership will continue to work towards securing the sport its first national stadium.
Shahrul said the government had already allocated a budget for the new national stadium but there were issues with the plot of land identified for the project.
It is believed that the land identified was not suitable to build the stadium on.
"Actually we already got (green light) for the stadium but because of issues with the land, the project was not able to go on," said Shahrul when met yesterday.
"The budget for the project was subsequently withdrawn by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) although a tender had been issued.
"The Sports Ministry, however, have made clear their commitment to once again secure the budget from EPU.
"I held the president's post for seven years and plans to build the stadium had already started before my time during the late Datuk Wira Amiruddin Embi's tenure as president.
"So I hope the new MR leadership will continue our efforts to see the stadium come to fruition."
Plans to build the first national rugby stadium were announced by former Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin in 2015.
Shahrul's former deputy Amir Amri Mohamad took over the reins after defeating Datuk Seri Zainal Abidin Rafique 27-11 in a straight fight for the president's post at the MR annual general meeting-cum-elections in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Shahrul, who did not contest, believes it is time to make way for others to lead. He helmed the association for two terms between 2016 until this year.
Under his stewardship, Malaysia won it's first-ever gold medal in the sport at the Sea Games during the 2017 Kuala Lumpur edition and was promoted to the top-tier of the Asia Rugby Championship in the same year.
Earlier this year, the national squad also won it's first-ever medal, a bronze, in the Asia Sevens Series.
Development-wise, the National Rugby Development Programme was launched during his tenure.
Shahrul was also able to secure multi-million Ringgit sponsorship deals for MR, much more than the national body had ever received in the past.
In 2019, he announced a target of having Malaysia qualify for the Rugby World Cup in 2031.
"Unfortunately our progress was hampered for almost three years due to Covid-19," said Shahrul.
"I hope the new leadership will set a (new) logical target for us to qualify for the World Cup.
"I am still hoping to see us play in the World Cup one day."
Being a full-contact team sport, rugby was hit hard by Covid-19 restrictions during the pandemic. Domestic competitions were not held for more than two years.