| August 08, 2006 11:05 AM |   |
Strengthen Grassroot To Revive M'sian Football - Peter Velappan
By L.Jaiarajo
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 8 (Bernama) -- The only way for Malaysian football to be revived is to go back to the schools, districts, towns, villages or even estates, says Asian Football Confederation (AFC) general-secretary Datuk Peter Vellapan.
He says Malaysian football is in a crisis and the only way is to go back to the basics and start rebuilding from the grassroots.
He urged the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), Youth and Sports Ministry and the National Sports Council (NSC) to join forces and set up a task force to review the whole process.
"When a house collapses, you cannot start rebuilding it from the roof, instead we have to start laying the foundation and start from the ground level and the grassroot level is the best place to start," he said, referring to the ongoing crisis in the Malaysian football.
"If any foundation is not reinforced or well maintained from time to time, the building can collapse, and sports, especially football, is no exception," he told BERNAMA in an interview at the Royal Selangor Club's junior football tournament.
"Go back to the schools and start organising more age group tournaments throughout the country, bring back the clubs and allocate weekends for junior tournaments to create awareness and generate interest in football.
He said there was lack of tournaments for the various age groups to maintain the competitive edge among the young ones.
"States must also look at the clubs because it is the clubs that produce players to the states and eventually to the national team. We should look at countries like Brazil, England, Germany, Italy and France who have a very strong club-base," he said.
Malaysian football had come under heavy criticism after slipping down the FIFA World rankings from 118 to 127 and to the present position of 146.
The drastic drop in football standards in the country resulted in a public outcry and a call for the FAM office bearers to quit en-bloc.
Peter, who has been involved in football for more than 43 years and who has been a dominant force behind AFC, said the confederation had also embarked on a junior development programme for those aged six onwards.
"It is at these tender age where a sound basic foundation should be laid for a gradual progress before they graduate into elite players.
"Looking at football in general and from the global aspect, a country can only be as good as its clubs," said Peter who held the FAM assistant secretary's post from 1963 to 1980.
As the AFC general-secretary, Peter has travelled to more than 60 countries and has been involved in the development of football for many Asian countries.
He was also adviser to the organising committee of the 2002 World Cup hosted by Japan and South Korea.
-- BERNAMA
Source:http://www.bernama.com.my/
