TIME TO STOP THE ROT

Seminar to address sporting facilities turning into white elephants

By Tony Mariadass - January 31, 2020 @ 8:50am

Multi-sport Games are supposed to leave behind legacies such as sporting infrastructures as well social, economic and environmental benefits.

While most hosts of the Olympics have been successful, there are still many stadiums which have become white elephants due to poor management and maintenance.

One such recent case is the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Earlier this month, a court there ordered the park to be closed to the public because of safety concerns, dealing another blow to the legacy of the city which hosted the 2016 Olympic Games and Paralympics.

But why look so far away?

Even here, in Malaysia, we have our fair share of sporting facilities which have become white elephants.

We have built so many sporting facilities for so many multi-sport Games — be it the Sea Games, 1998 Commonwealth Games or the biennial Malaysia Games.

Under previous Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, who mooted the idea of turning the Bukit Jalil Sport Complex into a Sports City in preparation for the 2017 Sea Games, the government allocated more than RM1 billion for the upgrading of the venue.

The project was also aimed at making the area a popular spot for tourists.

Then, last year, corporate heavyweight Tan Sri Tony Fernandes was roped in to turn around the flagging fortunes of the Malaysia Stadium Corporation (MSC) as their new chairman.

He is supposed to be responsible for making improvements to MSC’s structure and operations as well as revive their finances.

His appointment was also expected to further boost the youth, sports, recreation and entertainment activities involving assets under MSC, including the National Stadium.

The various states hosting the Malaysia Games were also supposed to build facilities meant to provide better sporting infrastructures for the future development of sports at all levels.

Sadly, many of these facilities are poorly managed, maintained and, not to mention, under-utilised (probably due to very high rentals).

Over the years, we have heard so many cases of astroturf pitches, velodromes, running tracks and football stadiums being poorly maintained or in dilapidated conditions.

Why is that so?

Well, whenever new sports facilities are built, they almost always fail to factor in the maintenance costs and there’s usually no strategy put in place to help the stadiums generate income either.

These are the basics which are sorely lacking among those tasked with running the venues.

There is an urgent need for experts who know about stadium maintenance — a facility management team.

So, it is timely that Sime Darby Foundation, under the chairmanship of Tunku Tan Sri Imran Tunku Ja’afar, will host an international seminar to address the problem.

Titled “Beyond the Games: The Legacy Begins”, the seminar will be held at Sime Darby Convention Centre, Bukit Kiara in Kuala Lumpur on March 31-April 1.

It will focus on optimising the utilisation of public sports facilities and Masters sports among Malaysians.

It will bring together stakeholders as well as local and international experts to discuss and share their insights on the matter.

On Day One, International Olympic Committee Athletes Commission chairperson Kristy Coventry will deliver the keynote address on “Sports for Life: Beyond the Games” while International Masters Games Association CEO Jens Holm will provide an athlete’s perspective via his talk on “The future for sports and recreation for Masters.”

A talk on “Sports and Recreation Facilities for Life: Management and Sustainability” will be presented on the second day.

There will be panel discussions on both days and they will be moderated by Tan Sri Dr M. Jegathesan and Datuk Marina Chin.

Among the list of panelists and speakers are Nik Razeen Adam Daud, the CEO of Stadium Board Malaysia, and Helen Lee, assistant director of Sport Infrastructure Group at Sport Singapore.

Yayasan Sime Darby (YSD) is proud to host the inaugural "Beyond the Games: The Legacy Begins" International Conference on 31 March and April 2020. We cordially invite Malaysians and non-Malaysians to be part of this auspicious event.

Driven by the objectives of encouraging Malaysians to participate in Masters sports (competitive sports for athletes aged above 35), and optimising the usage of Malaysian sports facilities, the conference also aims to form a sustainable sports ecosystem where Masters sports stakeholders may independently organise and/or participate in sporting activities at public facilities, and the facilities may meet all Malaysians’ sporting activity demands.

The conference will bring together critical stakeholders featuring local and international experts to discuss and share insights on various topics related to Masters sports and the utilisation of public facilities for sporting events.

Those who are interested may purchase tickets and learn more about the conference through Ticket2U (https://www.ticket2u.com.my/event/17115/beyond-the-games) or YSD’s website (www.yayasansimedarby.com)

Join us and take part in carving out solutions to achieve positive changes for both Masters sports and sports facilities in Malaysia.

PROFESSIONAL IN NAME ONLY

Time for M'sian sports to break free from power-greedy administrators, leaders

Malaysian sports, despite its tremendous potential, has not been able to tap its talent to the fullest due to politicking.

By Tony Mariadass - December 30, 2019 @ 9:51am

In just two days, we will herald in the start of the second decade of the 21st century.

Sadly, Malaysian sports, despite its tremendous potential, is still stuck in a time warp.

Despite having ultra-modern facilities and abundant of funding, we have not been able to tap talent to its fullest.

So, why is that?

Simple. It all boils down to politics in sports, where those tasked with managing sports associations have personal agendas and use it as a platform to elevate themselves to positions of power and riches.

In other words, although many sports have turned professional, there is nothing professional about their approach in running or managing the sports associations.

With such an attitude, the proper governance of sports through transparency, fairness and sportsmanship is thrown out of the window.

Each time a sport does not achieve its desired targets, coaches and athletes are made scapegoats while the officials stay on.

Many national sports associations (NSAs) also do not take kindly to being singled out for their poor management and over-ambitious officials.

Some even go on a witch hunt to nail the “messengers”, who in some cases are sports journalists with no vested interest, except to tell the truth.

And it is here — in the NSAs and SSAs (state sports associations) — that the rot has set in, no thanks to power-greedy officials who know nothing about sports or the sports associations they are in control of.

Ideally, we should have former sportsmen and women returning to serve their associations without fear or favour and free from any personal agenda.

Having said that, the responsibility for choosing the right people lies in the hands of the affiliates and members. They must be careful not to be swayed by promises of grants, trips and gifts.

The NSAs and SSAs must also learn to stand on their own two feet and not always depend on the National Sports Council (NSC) for funding.

At the same time, the NSC must also let the NSAs and SSAs learn to source for their own funding instead of molly-coddling them and bailing them whenever they get into trouble.

It’s also time that sport officials focus on one association only and not spread themselves thin by heading more than one sports body.

In other words, one must learn to live without the other.

NSA officials also shouldn’t hold office at the state-level because this will lead to a conflict of interest.

And all elected officials must serve sports and not themselves with trips, looking for positions at Asean, Asian or even international level.

While it is good that local sports officials hold positions at international levels, they must first prove themselves by elevating the status of their respective sports in Malaysia.

There are many more ills which need to be addressed urgently, including the constant interference of the Sports Ministry, including through their agency — the NSC.

It is only a matter of time before some NSAs report to the International Olympic Council (IOC) and we will be in trouble.

There are many more aspects that we need to re-look to get our act right.

But first, we need to ask ourselves these questions:

1. Does the Sports Advisory Panel have the right people? Have they made any difference?

2. Has our selection process been transparent and fair? Are the best athletes being chosen?

3. Have we selected or brought in the right foreign players? Are they being brought in just for the sake of having foreign players? Has their presence curtailed the opportunities of local players?

4. Has there been proper accountability by SSAs and NSAs?

5. Have the SSAs and NSAs done enough for the development of sports and are existing programmes effective, well-managed and productive?

6. Has the match-fixing menace been totally eradicated?

7. Are our first-class facilities being managed by third-class managers?

8. Do all our athletes have a professional and winning mind-set?

9. Do we have enough professional coaches, who are armed with the latest knowledge of their respective sports?

10. Are the athletes’ welfare being looked after adequately?

11. Are ex-internationals doing enough to give back to sports?

12. Are our programmes well managed or haphazardly prepared? Do we have well-prepared short- as well as long-term programmes?

13. Do we have the “right brains” running the various sports associations?

Hopefully, as we head into 2020, most of these questions will be answered in the affirmative — as long as those in power believe in — and practice — transparency, fair play, honesty and sportsmanship.

Do that and Malaysian sports will hit unprecedented heights in 2020 and beyond.

THE SEA GAMES IS MORPHING INTO A MONSTER-CUM-CIRCUS

Has the Sea Games, which was inaugurated in 1959 as the Seap Games, outlived its importance and just become a carnival over the recent years?

There are conflicting views on the question, but looking at the Games objectively, one must agree that the Games has become a showcase for hosting nations and wanting to win the most number of medals at all cost.

The games have no official limits to the number of sports to be contested, and thus range can be decided by the organizing host, pending approval by the Southeast Asian Games Federation (SEAGF). Besides the core sports that must be featured, the host is also free to drop or introduce other events.

This leeway has resulted in hosts maximising their medal hauls by dropping sports disadvantages to themselves and the introduction of obscure sports including mainly traditional sports by the host.

Of course, there are views that Games is still very much relevant, where host countries benefit with new sporting facilities and a boost for their economy among other things.

The Games also help Southeast Asian countries, athletes and officials in many ways. For example, the managerial skills gained from hosting the Games prove invaluable to local sports officials when preparing for bigger international events while home athletes gain a platform to shine and achieve higher targets.

For countries like Myanmar who hosted the Games again after 44 years in 2013, shone in the international arena just two years after the end of military rule and the lifting of Western sanctions and the Games was a platform for them to exhibit themselves to the world again.

It was no different when Brunei, Vietnam and Laos hosted the Games for the first time in 1999, 2003 and 2009 respectively, when they were faced with many uphill tasks, but managed to pull through in the end and was tremendous boost for their respective country.

Having covered 12 consecutive Games from 1983 in Singapore to 2005 in Manila, and another in Singapore in 2015, besides two others in Thailand in 2007 and at the last Games in KL a different capacity in the media field, I have seen the best and worst of Games.

But overall it was a great experience soaking in the electrifying atmosphere of the Games, something money cannot buy. These are memories I will treasure for life.

But again the Sea Games, has also lost its importance because many nations have already established themselves as leaders in sports and their athletes have attained high standards in the international field.

Having said that the Games is still used to groom young athletes.

However, it has become a Catch 22 situation.

While in one hand, the Games still has its relevance, on the other, it has become a carnival and standards have been dropping that the Games is considered of the lowest standard event in the region.

Some events even fail to have the full quota of participants and competed by four countries, events scratched because it does not have enough participants, while many countries send their second rated athletes.

Some countries like Malaysia, even allow athletes who do not meet qualifying standards to enter as ‘B’ category athletes and pay their own way and only get their money refunded if they win medals.

Maybe it is time that the Sea Games be just for under-23 athletes so that it becomes a development Games.

Football in the Games is already confined to the under-23, as the sport has grown tremendously. But then again whether the same can be said of all sports, especially athletics, is left to be debated.

Besides, there are enough events to expose young talent, from the Asean Schools Games, Commonwealth Youth Games, Asian Youth Games and Youth Olympics to the youth and school championships for the respective sports.

In any case, it is up to the nations or national associations of sports whether they want to send seasoned athletes or development athletes to the Games, depending on the status of the sports concerned

But why has the SEA Games grown into a monster carnival? Veering from being a hunting platform for the development of future sport stars in the region.

Many will point the finger to the South East Asian Games Federation (SEAGF) — the governing body which was founded in June 1959 with six founder countries — Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Malaya, Thailand and Vietnam — which has now grown to 11 — with the inclusion of Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei and Timor Leste.

But rules like Rule 34 of the SEAGF Charter which clearly defines that the programme is be selected by the host, gives room for the Games to be diluted.

While the main grouse is a flotilla of irrelevant sports, the first rule states: a minimum of 22 sports, with events contained therein to be determined based on the following criteria:

— 34.1: there shall be no artificial events… unless the same are already practised in the Olympic or Asian Games; — 34.2: a minimum of four NOCs must participate in a sport/event for it to be included …;

— 34.3: with the exception of Athletics, Aquatics, and Shooting, other sports shall not have more than 5 percentage of the total number of events or medal tally;

— 34.4: Following the existing guidelines of Athletics and Aquatics (swimming, diving, water polo) being Compulsory Sports, with a minimum of 14 sports from Category II (35 events listed; sports in Olympics and Asian Games) and a maximum of 8 sports from Category III (15 events listed), South East Asian Games Federation Charter (as at 30 May 2010) 11 sports programme in the SEA Games should give priority or preference to sports already included in the IOC and / or OCA sports programmes.

— 34.6 Each adopted sport must belong to an existing International Sport Federation (IF) and / or an Asian Sport Federation (ASF); 34.7 The Organising Committee may hold as a “Demonstration Sports”, one (1) sport, subject to approval…

But despite the rules in place to safeguard the Games from exploding, the host nation still manages to pick winnable sports to favour itself.

What started with 12 sports in the inaugural Games in Thailand in 1959 has grown to an average of 30 sports or more. While the KL Games in 2017 saw 38 sports, the highest number was in 2011 when Indonesia hosted the 26th Games with 44 sports, but now has been overtaken by Philippines with 56 sports!

The other issue is the accelerating cost for a host, where the Games reflects economic clout, with grand opening and closings.

Too much emphasis and money is spent on opening and closing ceremonies, where they money would be put to better use if used for the development of sports of the host nations.

The Games has also now become a money spinning arena for many.

Generally, if the SEAGF does not put their foot down to get the Games back to its tracks, it is just going to continue to explode with each passing Games.

But with the SEAGF comprising of member nations officials and practicing a very family like atmosphere in their meetings, where the common practice is to “you scratch my back and I scratch yours”, the Games is just going to continue to grow into a bigger monster and a big circus in the end.

NOT ENOUGH GOOD COACHES

THE GROUND IS LAID, NURTURING IS NEXT

Comment By Tony Mariadass

The restructured National Football Development Programme (NFDP) after Malaysia’s Under-16 team’s failure to qualify for World U-17 tournament last year, is thorough and is perfect on paper.

The million-ringgit question is whether this NFDP set up in 2014 and the brainchild of former Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, is on the right track and will be implemented and monitored diligently?

Yes, it is as a long term programme, but at the same time there are still many ills that need to be addressed urgently.

On the surface with all the statistics, it looks all honky-dory.

But beneath that, there are still many teething problems ranging from poor quality coaches, not the right coaches appointed, poor monitoring of the programme, wages issues, the best players not in the programme and many others.

Speaking to many coaches involved in the programme, they had many issues and were an unhappy lot. Some who have served well have been unceremoniously left out under the new management after the change of government last year. Cronyism prevails.

There are still grouses on the ground, both from coaches and parents of children and meetings are ongoing to address the issues.

Of course, there has been success stories from the NFDP both locally and international championships.

Among the NFDP’s biggest achievements was emerging as champions of the 2015 Costa del Sol Iber Cup in Portugal and winning the 2016 SuperMokh Cup that was held in Kuala Lumpur.

The Under-14 AMD squad also won the Whitsun tournament in Dortmund, Germany besides winning the Vogido trophy in Enschede, the Netherlands, last June.

The national Under-19 under coach Brad Maloney had called up 12 players from the Academy Mokhtar Dahari (AMD) and Under-17 team under coach Bojan Hodak, had nine players.

Lim Teong Kim who was first appointed as the NFDP technical director in 2013, has now assumed the post of AMD director in 2016 and his contact ends end of this month. All indications are that his contract will not be renewed.

His duties as technical director has been taken over by Frechman Saad Ichalalene after the programme was restructured in December.

The restructuring of the NFDP has seen the major role of steering the programme swift from the Youth and Sports Ministry to the National Sports Council and FA of Malaysia

The sport minister, Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, heads the NFDP Steering Committee, with Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) president, Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin as his deputy. Datuk Ahmad Shapawi Ismail (Director-general of National Sports Council - NSC) is secretary and Stuart Ramalingam (FAM secretary general) as assistant secretary of this committee.

Other representation in this committee are from the Ministry of Sports, Ministry of Education, NSC, National Sports Institute – (ISN) and FAM.

Then, there is another working committee headed by Ahmad Shapawi, then a Technical Committee headed by Datuk Sri Subahan Kamal, the FAM deputy president.

The NFDP state programme is headed by another technical committee spearheaded by Saad Ichalalene, who hails from youth academy of Paris Saint German with Peter Roo, the FAM technical director, who is the advisor to this committee.

The roles of the various committees and agencies involved have been clearly defined and hope each execute their roles effectively.

But how well the decisions, the vision and mission, are implemented on the ground is left to be seen. The programme is so huge and whether it has the manpower to monitor, is a big question mark.

The powers in charge will claim that they have everything in place, but therein lies the problem because at the grassroots the implementation and monitoring is left much to be desired.

For the record, the NFDP training centres comes in layers throughout the country from the district to national level – starting with the Academy Tunas (46 centres), District Training Centre (62 centres), Schools Sports Schools (14 schools) and the AMD, for a total of 123 centres.

Coaches in all these centres total up to 702 and a total of 14,728 are participants!

Indeed, impressive numbers. But is numbers and quantity we are looking at, or quality and effectiveness.

Other areas of NFDP include their coach educators, talent scouting, strength and conditioning and goalkeeper educator. Do they have enough personnel in these areas to address, monitor and divulge the knowledge effectively?

Is conducting courses once a year sufficient?

Competition is also in place with Ministry of Education league for Under-14 and Under-17 under Super and Premier league, district, state and national level tournaments.

Then we have Super League teams in the MFL, required to have a development programme and have youth teams. Some States and clubs like Johor DT, Selangor, PKNS, PJ City FC to name a few have structured programmes and youth teams and invest in it. But others choose the easy way out to adopt a school as their programme.

JDT spend RM2.2million for their youth development programs. They started four years ago and in the last two years we have won seven youth titles.

Let’s not forget, that there are private academies all over the country which are not registered with the FA of Malaysia, where thousands of children attend.

FAM should immediately ask all these academies to register with them so that they can be monitored and also ensure qualified coaches are involved, proper facilities are in place and have a programme which will bear fruit.

The huge interest in development augurs well for the future of Malaysian football, but it has to be implemented, monitored and have quality for the end quality to polished and shining.

With the 2020 budget announcing that the NFDP will be allocated RM45 million for next year – an increase of 30 million (they started with RM3.5 million before being raised to RM30 million), it is hoped that the money is channelled to the proper areas and used wisely for the development of the programme and game.

THE LONG TRADITION IN HIGH JUMP

What is that Malaysia having over years been always able to produce calibre high jumpers who have gone to do proud to the national in international field?

Malaysia has dominated the men’s high jump in the SEA Games since 1977 with the likes of Baljit Singh, Ramjit Nairu, Ho Yoon Wah, S. Kesavan, Lou Cwee Peng, Loo Kum Zee, Lee Hup Wei and Nauraj Singh Randhawa, while among the women Nor Asiah Ismail and Yap Sean Yee come to mind.

Hup Wei has taken high jump to another level after Nauraj qualified for the Rio Olympics three years ago with his 2.30m qualifying jump at the Singapore Open.

Hup Wei’s success made history as the first Malaysian athlete to reach the finals of the prestigious World Athletics Championships, as the 32-year-old former national record holder, made a 2.29-metre jump in the Group B qualifying round at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, which was also his personal best, to qualify for the finals.

In the final, Hup Wei, however, failed to do a 2.30m jump to match the national record held by teammate Nauraj, when he only managed to hit 2.27m and finished eighth of twelve finalists.

Hup Wei, the winner of Asian Championships 2007, who is also SEA Games gold medalist, had qualified for the Beijing Olympics 2008 and London Olympics 2012.

Timesport spoke to past and present coaches and athletics administrators, on their views and observations of the long tradition in Malaysia producing calibre high jumpers.

Was it our school’s system, the Malaysian Schools Sports Council (MSSM) programme, kids love to jump at school or good coaches?

In the case of Nauraj, it was parental support and a good coach in his long time Uzbeskiatan coach Alim Ahmejanov, guiding his talent for eight years before Australian Alex Stewart took over.

The lanky Nauraj, also gave up hockey before switching to athletics.

The views given are a combination of many. Below are the views:

K. Jayabalan: (former national coach and president of Panther Athletic Club in Ipoh)

High Jump prowess is a trend in Malaysia since the 60s. It has become a tradition to produce calibre high jumpers because athletes are motivated to emulate success of previous jumpers.

Besides, former jumpers too have played a role to mould new jumpers as they become coaches.

Also the fact, that there is little competition in high jump because of limited jumpers, make many who take up the discipline do well to win medals and thus in turn motivates them to improve further and continue to win more medals and in higher competition.

Datuk A Vaithilingam: (former Selangor Schools Sports Council secretary general in the 70s and 80s):

Many talents in various discipline were spotted then because of the sports system in schools where we had inter-class, inter-house and the school’s sports meet, where all students were required to compete in all events and many were spotted from there.

We also had dedicated sports teachers in the various sports, who also besides being coaches, acted as talent scouts.

Many of the high jumpers were groomed by these teachers from school before they made their mark at national and international level.

We also spotted many from the district meets where many hidden talents were unearthed.

Rennie Martin (former teacher, schools and national coach)

I personally coached and turned Ho Yoon Wah from a basketball player to a high jumper, who went to become a national jumper who cleared 2.10m to win the 1981 Manila Sea Games. Another high jumper I groomed was Nor Asiah Ismail.

Many high jumpers have been spotted and groomed from the schools’ level and also then the Kem Bakat saw many spotted and groomed from here.

We also had good coaches at the grassroots level, which played a key role in spotting, converting to disciplines that suited the athlete.

Tan Choo Mong (Perak Sukma coach and former schools and national coach)

Teachers have played a key role in spotting talent. When I was the Perak schools chief coach, I had a school teacher ask me to take Low Cwee Peng whom he thought had talent. I took him under my wings and groomed him to national material.

 But high jump also has a tradition because of past jumpers who have done well. Champions breed more champions and this was the case for high jump.

However, the athlete also must have talent, discipline, the desire to high success and also the coaches and facilities were also in place.

Ramjit Nairu (Former national high jumper)

High jump has a strong tradition because of past champions. In my case, I was so impressed with former national jumper Baljit Singh in Sabah, that I took up the discipline when I was 18 years ago. I was lucky to have been taken under the wing of Baljit himself and competed with him before he retired and became my coach.

I went on to became a national jumper before I retired after the 1989 Sea Games in KL. I am presently the president of the Putatan District athletics club and do my bit to coach in the discipline besides having programmes for budding athletes from the district.

Jorg Teichmann (German athletics coach who was with the National Sports Insititute for 21 years. Currently co owns physiotherapy centre called Rehamed Therapy at UOA Business Park in Shah Alam.)

Good coaches for high jump has seen Malaysia keep its tradition in high jump.

I had personally coached Loo Kum Zee when he won the bronze medal at the Bangkok Asian Games in 1998 and also had Hup Wei under my wings.

The National Sports Council (NSC) have also had good coaches in various disciplines who have played a key role in constant flow of athletes in various disciplines.

There is generally a high interest in high jump in Malaysia and there are good grassroots coaches who put the athletes on the right track.

Balwant Singh Kler (athletics statistician and sports administrator)

Good coaches, past high jumpers who become role models and coaches and personally interest and encouragement of individuals, have played a key role in keeping the high jump tradition.

I have personally played a role to develop Ramjit by sponsoring him to competitions and exposing him before he made his mark.

ENDS.