Let's go local (The Sunday Mail)

THE FA of Malaysia's (FAM) move in barring foreign players from the M-
League next season could probably serve as the best medicine for the
current ills of Malaysian soccer.
 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) technical director S. Subramaniam
certainly believes so.
 "I mean no disrespect to the foreign players who have been playing here.
 "They've done their part by lighting up the League. To a certain extent,
they've  helped to mould some local players by imparting their experience
and skills to them," said Subramaniam.
 "But the time has come for Malaysian soccer to stand on its own two
feet. We've not been doing well internationally and one of the reasons for
that is the dearth of talented players in certain positions.
 "And coincidentally, most of these positions have been occupied by
foreign players in the M-league.
 For instance, we lack capable strikers and midfielders. Most of the
teams employ foreign players in these departments.
 "Now, with no foreigners to rely on, the teams will have to depend on
the abilities of local players.
 "So, State FAs will have to place emphasis on developing their own
players to fill the positions.
 They will also have to scout for new local players."
 Subramaniam said an important factor that makes a towering contribution
to a player's improvement is exposure.
 "If more local players get the chance to play, they'll be exposed to
more competitive matches. This will surely help them to improve."
 Subramaniam said that State teams should not be apprehensive about
playing with just local players as history shows that we have done well in
the past relying on only local talents.
 "In fact, we had  formidable national teams in the past compared to now.
That alone should justify the move to do away with the foreigners.
 "Teams should not worry about fans staying away from matches because
there are no foreigners in the line-up. If they can produce results, fans
will return.
 "The bottom line is, fans are interested in results and once a team does
well, they will flock to the stadium again.
 The huge sums of money saved from not signing foreigners, noted
Subramaniam, can be chanelled towards development.
 "We must make an effort to ensure that we have a bigger pool of players
for the national team."
 He cited one example where the absence of a foreigner resulted in the
discovery of a local player.
 Subramaniam was obviously talking about Negri Sembilan's Zami Mohamed
Noor.
 "If Scott Ollerenshaw was still around and scoring goals, Zami would
never have been given the chance to play as striker.
 "Perhaps we will discover many more calibre strikers, midfielders and
defenders of our own, next season."
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