KUALA LUMPUR – Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh said she believes the government’s initiative to reel in the private sector into sports by providing RM50 million in matching funds will be beneficial to district level sports.
Hannah said this in response to Kalam Salam (Sabak Bernam-PN) in Parliament, who said he hopes to see local district football leagues make a return, but noted that activators in local districts fail to initiate activities.
“I believe the new initiative for next year’s budget of matching funds will allow the organisation of more activities, especially at the grassroots level.
“I will discuss this matter with the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM),” she said in the Dewan Rakyat today.
The RM50 million in matching funds to encourage private sector sponsorships of sports programmes is part of the RM399 million allocation in the revised Budget 2023 for the Youth and Sports Ministry.
Kalam said that the ministry should work with local governments and football associations to revive district-level football.
“I hope they (the ministry) can do this to further enliven sporting facilities for the youth’s benefit because they really enjoy football.
“We also have teachers in districts that love football and are capable of coaching the youth,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hannah also responded to Kalam, who at the same time questioned the ministry’s trust in the national men’s football team’s coaching and naturalised players, to which the Segambut MP said that their current performance speaks for itself.
“After FAM announced Kim Pan-gon as the head coach, Malaysia qualified for the Asian Cup on merit after 43 years.
“He also proved his capability when Harimau Malaya made it into the AFF Cup semi-finals, meeting FAM’s target,” she said.
Hannah added that the presence of naturalised players in the national squad is not a worry for the ministry.
“Our stance is that we will always be working with FAM to ensure that local football players’ development is the main priority,” she said.
Recently, the ministry announced that they will be working together with the Malaysian Football League to show Super League matches on big screens to further showcase local football matches and foster local community unity. – The Vibes, March 2, 2023.
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