More of an eye-opener (The Malay Mail)

STAGING the Youth World Cup soccer championship, which concluded at the
Shah Alam Stadium last Saturday, was not meant to be just a showpiece.
 More importantly, it was an eye-opener and experience to help upgrade
the game in the country.
 This was the hope of Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, the FA of
Malaysia deputy-president and Local Organising Committee chairman of the
World Youth Cup.
 He was attending yesterday's briefing on the latest changes by FIFA on
the Laws of Games for referees, coaches, team officials and FA secretaries
in Petaling Jaya.
 "We received accolades from all quarters for our fine staging of the
World Youth Cup, but I hope it will be more than that for us in Malaysia,"
said Tengku Abdullah.
 "For us in the soccer fraternity, it should be a learning experience in
all aspects - organisation, administration, the professionalism of the
players and coaches, the tactics and techniques of the game, the
refereeing and everything associated with the game.
 "We should now use all these experiences to upgrade the game in our own
M-League and achieve an even higher standard in all aspects.
 "The referees, coaches, players, team officials and administrative staff
of each State should have benefited from what they have seen during the
World Youth Cup.
 "The very fact that we brought the championship to Malaysia only
underlines our seriousness about the game.
 "We certainly did not stage the tournament just as a showpiece."
 Tengku Abdullah's hopes of the local soccer fraternity benefiting from
Malaysia staging the tournament should be the norm, but how much really
was our gain is left to be seen.
 For starters, the local coaches were not in organised groups to be at
all venues to study the various teams or share knowledge with the foreign
coaches except for a handful picked by the FAM to assist the FIFA
technical study group.
 Many State FAs gave their M-League players a break during the
championship when they should have organised trips to matches to witness,
study and analyse the game patterns of the various teams.
 In some States which were hosting the group matches, their M-League
players did not have tickets or passes made available to them.
 While coaches make a beeline to go overseas in search for foreign
players for their teams, many did not take the opportunity to scout for
talented and world class youth players in action in their very own
backyards.
 While coaches from France, talent scouts and private agents were in
numbers here, our local coaches were probably contented to watch the
action from the television screens.
 Probably, it was the administrative and organisational staff of the
various host States' Local Organising Committees who would have benefited
from the high standards set and required by FIFA.
 But then again, unless whatever has been learnt is implemented in the
local scene, it will just be a case where it was done to please FIFA only.
 Tengku Abdullah was certainly on the ball when he underlined the
importance that the local soccer fraternity should place on the lessons
learnt from organising the Youth World Cup.
 And it is also hoped that this will reflect on the M-League, which
resumes tomorrow with the second round after a month's break.
                              (END)