DON'T STRIP HARIMAU OF THEIR STRIPES

HARIMAU MALAYA ENDANGERED SPECIES

https://www.nst.com.my/sports/football/2020/05/592018/harimau-malaya-endangered-species

By Tony Mariadass

 

 

WHILE the tiger cannot change its stripes, Harimau Malaysia are in danger of losing their identity.

   And FAM should get a mauling by purists for causing a rush by foreign players with ancestral ties to Malaysia to become naturalised players.

   FAM did say that they are taking a strong and cautious stand in screening these foreign applicants with stringent criteria in place. But at the rate the national body, the state teams and clubs are going, Malaysian football is heading for a man-made disaster due to too much “naturalising.”

   FAM’s incongruous stand on naturalisation is certainly not helping when their senior officials give rather contradicting views on the recruitment of these players.

   FAM secretary-general Stuart Ramalingam admitted that the national body had received recommendations from football agents, after which they would  adopt strict screenings and go by Fifa regulations.

   He had also stated that FAM were keeping an eye on England-based Kobe Jae Chong and United States-based Wan Kuzain Wan Kamal.

   Then we have a blogger tracking down two players – New Zealander Harry Edge and Congolese Marcel Kalonda, and recommending them for the national team.

   In response, Stuart said FAM will protect local talent, and not fish for foreign talent like the Philippines and that if there were too many naturalised players, it would no longer be a national team. But he added that the national body will check out Edge and Kalonda.

   The biggest purveyor of  ‘naturalised talent’ for the national team is Datuk Wira Mohd Yusoff Mahadi, the chairman of FAM’s Naturalisation Programme Committee which were set up in 2018.

  He has stated FAM are open to using naturalised players for the national team but stressed that they would not rush into naturalising players and have strict guidelines on the matter.

  He has also made statements like “How long Malaysia have to wait for local players to rise to the occasion?”

  Yusoff went on to say that the presence of naturalised players will spur local players to work hard, raise their game and fight for their places in the national team.

  Spurring players to work hard?

  Yusoff, the deputy president of the Melaka United Soccer Association, will even find it hard to lift the spirits of his  Melaka players, who have problems getting their salaries. 

  Malacca can thank their lucky stars that FAM decided to give them an extension to settle their players’ salary arrears by yesterday. But they were slapped with a three-point league deduction for missing the Jan 31 deadline.

   With so many problems in his own  state team, it is a wonder that Yusoff  has been given such a huge task at national level — the programme of naturalising players.

   Among the players recruited by Yusoff’s committee are Matthew Davies, Darren Lok, Brendan Gan, Kiko Insa and Natxo Insa, all who had featured for the national team at one time or another.

  JDT’s Kosovo-born midfielder Liridon Krasniqi, who was recently granted Malaysian citizenship after staying for five years here, will be the latest to represent the national team.

  The 28-year-old became the second foreign footballer to be naturalised after Pahang’s Gambia-born Mohamadou Sumareh who received his Malaysian citizenship in 2018.

   Brazilian Guilerme de Paula, 33, after three seasons with Kuala Lumpur (now with Perak) has also applied to be a naturalised player.

   Under Fifa rules, players must have ancestral ties to the country that they wish to represent with either parent or grandfather born there. As for foreign-born players, they must live for at least five years, after reaching the age of 18, on the territory of the relevant association, and have never played for another national team.

   At the rate Malaysia are going on the foreign recruitment drive, we may end up with a national team of mainly naturalised players that the Harimau Malaya would look so unnatural.

   Though FAM insist they are still protecting local talent and not going out of their way to fish for foreign talent, it certainly does not look that way.

   Maybe one way to curb states and clubs from joining the naturalised players  bandwagon (to become part of their local players’ quota for the M-League), is to impose a two-year rule after being naturalised, to qualify as a local.

   Despite the short-term target (with naturalised players) to help Malaysia qualify for the Asian Cup and move up the world rankings, FAM should review their goal before it does more harm than good.

   FAM should stop looking at short cuts, which will only further stunt the growth of local talent, and instead focus on talent scouting seriously by combing the length and breadth of the country.

   It is no secret that Malaysian sports generally do not have a sound talent scouting system in place, which is imperative in Europe and most developing nations. 

  The expertise and experience of ex-international footballers are hardly utilised. And the ex-international association themselves, despite time and again being urged to get their members to get involved in talent scouting and work closely with FAM, are hardly proactive.

  Maybe it is time FAM hired fulltime talent scouts in numbers. It may take four or five years before we see any results, but with development programmes, especially with the National Football Development Programme already yielding some talented players, Malaysia can head in the right direction.

   Many may argue that getting naturalised players is still the best way forward and that is what many countries are doing, but do we want to see our national team with players who cannot speak Bahasa Malaysia or sing the Negaraku?  

  Or do we want foreigners who are in the twilight of their careers but hoping to have one last shine with our national team?

   We should give Malaysia’s “natural talent” a chance to grow with the national team and keep its identity. Don’t strip Harimau Malaya of its stripes.