By PJ City FC owner Datuk Sri Vijay Eswaran and his team of Kuna Senathirajah (Group Managing Director of QI Group), Zaheer Merchant (Corporate Affairs Director of QI Group), Ganesh Shanmugam (CEO of PJ City FC) and Ramya Chandrasekaran (Chief Communications Officer of QI Group)
STANDFIRST:
PJ City FC owner Datuk Sri Vijay Eswaran’s passion, wanting to give back to the nation he loves and wanting to give a platform for local players to excel, continues with his passion even with the team’s withdrawal from the Super League for the new season.
Founder and Executive Chairman of QI Group of Companies, came aboard to assist financially and take over to manage the Malaysian Indian Football Association (MIFA) four seasons ago in the Super League in Malaysian Football League (MFL) after the team earned promotion from the Premier League.
He was approached a few years before that to assist the MIFA, but threw a challenge to them to earn a promotion to Super League before he considers.
The entrepreneur, philanthropist, and author kept his promise, but for the new season, has decided to pull out the team after four seasons.
While many believe that it was the new ruling by Malaysian Football League (MFL) to allow teams to register a maximum of nine foreign players and six allowed to play at any one time that forced their pullout, Eswaran, insisted that the bigger reason was to concentrate on his passion of grassroots development and return with a local team, good enough to challenge teams with foreign players.
He and his management team strongly felt that their current batch of local players were not up to the mark yet to put up a strong challenge under the current scenario, although they given their best and achieved some creditable results against several teams with full quota of foreign players.
Eswaran whose company is a multinational conglomerate with diverse interests including direct selling, real estate, education, retail and hospitality in more than 30 countries, is a strong believer of local talent.
Eswaran who was educated in the UK and the USA and has a successful corporate career in North America before the call of entrepreneurship brought him home to Asia in the early 1990s, cited that while many Malaysians go onto help in nations where they have their business and while he has also helped in UK with Manchester City, he is bent on wanting to contribute in Malaysia and to Malaysian football.
Below Eswaran in an exclusive interview with NST Sports, answers the real reason for PJ City FC’s withdrawal from the Super League for the new season and his plans for the future.
He underlines that PJ City FC is only taking a hiatus and will be back.
NST Sport: What now for PJ City FC after your withdrawal from the Super League and your experience from four years in the Super League. How do you feel having to pull out from the Super League.
Datuk Eswaran: Nothing has actually changed with regards to my intention.
From the very onset it has been about Malaysian football.
Keyword being Malaysian.
I consider myself as a product of 70s and 80s, where we played world class football and am immensely proud everywhere I went as Malaysian football was spoken off highly. It was a concept of Malaysia Boleh put into action.
To watch our current performance become lacklustre at the world level when I returned from overseas, was very disappointing to me, where our world ranking dropped drastically.
There was a time when giants used to fear us.
We had the likes of Mardona playing against the late Mokhtar Dahari at Merdeka Stadium and that was was a night to remember.
So I wanted to revive that and simply put, I believed that we had to start at grassroots.
So my focus still remains at the grassroots.
It began at the grassroots and remains at the grassroots.
So while the Super League has been going on and obviously the Super League is a stage, but the grassroots to me, remains the most important aspect in what we do.
So what we have done with the President Team (Under 21) and the Belia Team (Under 19) and Under-16 team up to now, has been very fulfilling for me where our guys have done very well (semifinals for the Under-19 team).
From there we had the likes of V. Ruventhiran who came up from the ranks of youth teams.
And we have several other players some from our team who have earned national call ups like Darren Lok, Kalamulliah A-Hafiz and few others.
So in many ways I have been rewarded.
So, I rather spend my time and effort in developing on those who are at the grassroots from the Under-12, Under-16 and Under-21.
So in order to focus on that for the next few years, let us call out exit from the Super League as a hiatus, because the Super League as in our case is heading in a different direction.
We may not be in element, but we want to prove our point that locals are our gems and it may take some time, but we intend to achieve our goals.
I want to take the time for the next few years to focus on grassroots development - right from the kampong level. We want to pick the players from primary and secondary school level.
We want to focus on an Academy. We are in talks with our partners Manchester City to set up an academy here in Malaysia. (PJ City FC have been partners with Manchester City since 2014 and have extended this partnership that will take the relationship to ten years).
It is my believe that given a few years off, I can build a team of calibre - a fully local team.
And maybe at the time, we will be back in the League. Just like before as we climb from the Premier league to the Super League.
NST Sport: How long do you think it will take you to be back in the League?
Datuk Eswaran: Four years is a good estimate.
For instance, the boys in the Under-16 now, I believe in four years they will be ready to perform at the national level.
We have the talent, we will look for them and nurture them.
I think this hiatus is necessary and put the money where the impact is going to be.
NST Sport: Have your current players who had existing contracts found teams with PJ City’s withdrawal from the Super League.
Datuk Eswaran: We had seven players on two year contracts and each of them have offers with new teams.
We have always taken care of our players very well and have been acknowledged as one of the best managed teams.
The welfare of the players is utmost important to us and our team is a family. We look out for each other and a very close knit family team.
I personally want to thank all the players and officials who are very close to me and know each one of them. I go down onto the field to join their training and know each one of them personally.
NST Sport: PJ City will be branded as one of the many clubs who have come into the Malaysian League and did not last. Is that the case?
Datuk Eswaran: Like I have stated earlier, our withdrawal has nothing to do with us unable to manage the team financially.
Our decision is purely based on our principal to build a home grown talent team and prove a point that we Malaysians have the talent and can stand on our own.
At this point, we are just taking a break to work harder to achieve our goal to build a stronger local based team and concentrate at the grassroots to unearth and nurture the talent and return when we are ready.
We have not closing our team.
Of course, the league is still not viable commercially to teams.
It is a fact that many teams do not have sustainable revenue channels, fail to transform into commercially viable entities and continue to rely heavily on state funding.
We hope things turn up for the better by the time we return, but we as a team who know what it takes to manage a team effectively and efficiently and have done it without any problems
There is a need for more companies, sports marketing agencies, merchandising agencies, sports lawyers and insurance companies to enable the industry to be more vibrant and exciting and I believe it is slowly happening and the FA of Malaysia and MFL are doing their best. We need teams to be on the same page and do their part.
NST Sport: What kind of development programme are u looking at over the next four years.
Datuk Eswaran: The PJ City FC Player Development Programme is part of the development pathway for the team as it provides training and games for the youth teams and this will continue.
The youth team are selected from all over the country from the development programme initiated by Malaysian Indian FA (MIFA)and train year round.
What we need now is more competitive matches and we may even consider organising a league for youth teams on a longer period.
Our approach is youth centred, where we coach from the head down, rather than the feet up. As well as developing players technically and physically, we want to support every player with their confidence, creativity, decision making and love for the game.
Our training is fueled by passion and a thirst for victory. We want every player to feel empowered, take responsibility for their own learning and fulfil their potential on and off the football pitch.
Our coaching team are experienced in delivering coaching sessions that allow high levels of decision making and engage each player from start to finish.
Besides the plan to setup a Youth Academy in collaboration with Manchester City, we have already started the Jaguh RF programme this year.
Through collaborations with Rythm Foundation (RF), MySkills Foundation and MyPJ (a Petaling Jaya-based community group), the club scouts for talented teenage players, aged 13-14, from low-income families to excel in the sport.
The three-year Jaguh RF programme kicked off through the scouting of 40 boys from B40 families in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.
We are also looking at working with established club who have an existing junior development programme who have excellent facilities and we may tie up with them for a joint programme to kick start our programme intended soon if everything goes well in our discussions.
Ends.
