Barren field of dreams
KUANTAN — Still a year short after its ambitious launch, the National
Football Development Programme (NFDP) inaugurated by Prime Minister Datuk Seri
Najib Razak in Gambang, Pahang, last April has seen pitches at the Mokhtar
Dahari Academy reach a deplorable condition.
A visit to the academy on Sunday was greeted by dry pitches, hard ground, overgrown grass and barren areas.
There are five football pitches and only the one being maintained by the Pahang FA for their academy boys seemed to be in a good condition.
The other four have not been maintained for the last two months.
A check with coaches at the Pahang Sports School revealed the pitches have not been maintained because the contract of the previous contractor was not renewed.
“The pitches used to be in excellent condition when they were maintained by the previous contractor, who stationed five groundsmen at the academy,” echoed the coaches on condition of anonymity.
“They used to water the pitches via sprinklers daily, besides doing maintenance work to keep the pitches in excellent playing condition.
“But over the last two months, the pitches have been unattended and are deteriorating day by day.”
The lack of maintenance appears to mirror the behind-the-scenes problems of the much vaunted programme.
The brainchild of Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, it is headed by project director Lim Teong Kim, a former international with 12 years of youth coaching experience with Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich.
Under the NFDP, which began in 2013, more than 52,000 players are expected to be trained by 2020 from centres throughout the nation.
But all does not seem to be going well and news that several — as many as six — senior and key coaches have resigned throws doubt on its progress.
It is sad to hear that what was supposed to be a programme to lift Malaysian football from its doldrums has faced such problems at an early stage.
There are plans to add another seven pitches in the near future to complete the academy.
The pitches are currently used by the NFDP Under-13 team and four teams (Under-17, Under-16, Under-15 and Under-14) from the Education Ministry in collaboration with the FA of Malaysia.
The players and coaches are housed at the adjacent Pahang Sports School, which has excellent hostel and training facilities for five sports, namely football, netball, gymnastics, archery and athletics.
A seminar for all coaches involved in the NFDP will be held today in the city over two days, where Khairy will be giving the opening address.
Khairy will want to get to the bottom of the issues plaguing the NFDP and resolve them immediately, for the last thing he would want is to see a good programme be derailed by poor governance.
The revelation has stark echoes of the horrendous state of the pitch at Bukit Jalil Stadium, highlighted in the Mailsport report ‘We messed up’ on Nov 5.
The Malaysian Stadium Corporation admitted the stadium was refurbished but the relaid grass, at a cost of RM1.5 million, was not given enough time to bed.
The result was huge swathes of grass being carved up during the Malaysia Cup final on Nov 1.
A visit to the academy on Sunday was greeted by dry pitches, hard ground, overgrown grass and barren areas.
There are five football pitches and only the one being maintained by the Pahang FA for their academy boys seemed to be in a good condition.
The other four have not been maintained for the last two months.
A check with coaches at the Pahang Sports School revealed the pitches have not been maintained because the contract of the previous contractor was not renewed.
“The pitches used to be in excellent condition when they were maintained by the previous contractor, who stationed five groundsmen at the academy,” echoed the coaches on condition of anonymity.
“They used to water the pitches via sprinklers daily, besides doing maintenance work to keep the pitches in excellent playing condition.
“But over the last two months, the pitches have been unattended and are deteriorating day by day.”
The lack of maintenance appears to mirror the behind-the-scenes problems of the much vaunted programme.
The brainchild of Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, it is headed by project director Lim Teong Kim, a former international with 12 years of youth coaching experience with Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich.
Under the NFDP, which began in 2013, more than 52,000 players are expected to be trained by 2020 from centres throughout the nation.
But all does not seem to be going well and news that several — as many as six — senior and key coaches have resigned throws doubt on its progress.
It is sad to hear that what was supposed to be a programme to lift Malaysian football from its doldrums has faced such problems at an early stage.
There are plans to add another seven pitches in the near future to complete the academy.
The pitches are currently used by the NFDP Under-13 team and four teams (Under-17, Under-16, Under-15 and Under-14) from the Education Ministry in collaboration with the FA of Malaysia.
The players and coaches are housed at the adjacent Pahang Sports School, which has excellent hostel and training facilities for five sports, namely football, netball, gymnastics, archery and athletics.
A seminar for all coaches involved in the NFDP will be held today in the city over two days, where Khairy will be giving the opening address.
Khairy will want to get to the bottom of the issues plaguing the NFDP and resolve them immediately, for the last thing he would want is to see a good programme be derailed by poor governance.
The revelation has stark echoes of the horrendous state of the pitch at Bukit Jalil Stadium, highlighted in the Mailsport report ‘We messed up’ on Nov 5.
The Malaysian Stadium Corporation admitted the stadium was refurbished but the relaid grass, at a cost of RM1.5 million, was not given enough time to bed.
The result was huge swathes of grass being carved up during the Malaysia Cup final on Nov 1.
COUNTERATTACK
Former football greats and
sports officials told Malay Mail it
was disgraceful that the Mokhtar Dahari (Malaysia’s legendary striker) Academy
in Gambang, Kuantan and launched by the prime minister last April - was
besieged with problems in its infancy.
They said it also showed
grassroots development in the worst possible light.
A visit to the academy on
Sunday showed dried-up pitches, hard grounds, overgrown grass and barren areas.
Four fields had apparently not been maintained over the last two months while
the pitch under the care of Pahang FA for their academy boys seemed to be in a
good state.
The academy despite its launch last
April has not had a team under the National Football Development Programme
(NFDP) training there.
There are NDFP centres
elsewhere in Pahang.
The Under-13 NFDP squad only
reported to the Pahang Sports School on January 12.
However, they have yet to begin
training as their coach from NFDP, Khan Hung Meng, had not arrived. He has
since resigned and his assistant Raja Azlan Shah, former Perak and Kuala Lumpur
player, is expected to report this week and take charge of the team.
However, the fields at the
academy have been used by teams from the Pahang Sports School (Under-17,
Under-16, Under-15, Under-14 and Under13) under the Ministry of Education and
FA of Malaysia programme
The pitches used to be
immaculate condition when maintained by a contractor who had placed five
groundsmen at the academy which included watering the pitches with sprinklers
daily to keep the fields in fine playing condition.
However, the contract of the
contractor has not been renewed after it ended two months ago leaving the
pitches unattended.
The Mokhtar Dahari Academy
under a major plan to make it the hub for football development was to have been
equipped with more fields, a hostels, swimming pool and other training
facilities including artificial turf.
However, there has been no new
constructions yet expect for a main building and the five field.
Former international and 1972
Munich Olympics squad member, Bhwandi Hiral said it was a clear case of poor
monitoring.
“Monitoring is an important
element in any form of project, and it is obvious someone has slacked to lapse
on the field maintenance contract,” said Bhwandi.
“Facilities maybe great, but it
must be always be maintained at the best, because we are talking about
facilities for excellence training. We cannot compromise on the facilities.
“If we want top quality
players, we need to offer them excellent facilities and there cannot be any
compromise.”
Another veteran sports official
and athletic coach, Leo Leslie Armstrong, said it is normal for programmes to
face hiccups but it must be addressed immediately.
“Programmes can be the best
programmes but there will be hitches because of poor management or execution,”
said Armstrong a former national athletics coach.
“It is the same for all sports.
We always launch excellent programmes but it gets derailed because of
shortcomings along the way.
“It is good that problems are
identified earlier and immediate measures taken to rectify and ensure that it
does not happen.
“It is pointless in getting
upset when flaws in programmes are highlighted.”
Another
coach who was involved in the programme said there are several issues which
need to be addressed immediately to ensure that the programme proceeds
smoothly.
“I just
hope the coaches involved in the NFDP who are attending a two-day seminar will
bring out their grouses and any problems faces,” said the coach who spoke in
anonymity.
“Many are
afraid to talk because of being penalised. But for the good of the programme
they must speak out.
“Several
coaches have left the programme because they cannot communicate with the higher
ups and poor people management by them.
“A true picture has to be presented as soon as
possible before things get worse. It is a great programme but needs fine tuning
and proper management.”
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