Scully: apt to place price tags on AMD players

KLANG, Dec 25 -- The decision of the National Sports Council (MSN) to impose a price tag on any Malaysian League (M-League) keen to obtain the service of a player from the Mokhtar Dahari Academy (AMD) is an apt one since MSN has made a large investment in AMD.

National Football Development Programme Coach Educator and Talent Scout, Datuk Richard Scully said the move should have been implemented this season but had to be postponed to next season following several issues raised by certain quarters who were unhappy at the implementation of the price tag.

‘’I think it is correct, and the time has come for us to place price tags on players from AMD because they are the first batch of trainees after a five-year period,’’ he said when met by reporters in conjunction with the Christmas Day celebration at his residence here, today.

Commenting further, Scully, who was a former national goalkeeper, revealed that AMD, Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and MSN were looking for a suitable mechanism for the implementation of the price tag to avoid burdening M-League teams keen to secure the services of former AMD players after this.

Asked on the statement of Selangor coach, B. Sathianathan, who did not agree with the implementation of the price tag, Scully stressed that it was Sathia’s personal view and the move would still be implemented especially in looking after the welfare of the players concerned after leaving AMD.

‘’It is not necessarily that only senior players can have price tags, players in Europe as young as 14 to 15 years have been tied to clauses ensuring their would play for a club for a certain period of time,’’ Scully said.

At the same time, he stressed that the decisions of the Selangor and Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) teams to buy the first batch of AMD graduates this season could provide a healthy competition to the existing players in the two teams.

Selangor was reported to have bought up 28 players from AMD while JDT had succeeded in securing the services of six players.

On Sunday, NSC director-general Datuk Ahmad Shapawi Ismail confirmed that any football club keen to obtain the service of an AMD graduate would be imposed a price tag as an incentive in the form of a compensation to AMD.

The development received numerous reactions, especially from teams aspiring to secure the services of players trained by AMD when they would have to play a compensation of as low as USD2,000 (RM8,280) for a player in line with the guideline fixed by the International Football Federation (FIFA).

-- BERNAMA