Jpn Perak-perak Fc Grassroots Development Programme: Mission For Country's Football To Be Dominated By Locals

By Razif Rosli

IPOH, Aug 17 (Bernama) -- The development of grassroots footballers among locals is Perak FC's priority in the state's football development agenda, said Perak FC chairman Datuk Seri Abdul Azim Mohd Zabidi.

Thus seeing the importance of the matter, Abdul Azim said Perak FC in collaboration with the Perak State Education Department (JPN) launched the JPN Perak-Perak FC Grassroots Development Programme.

"We actually have many talented players and they need to be polished from the beginning at the school level again so that one day we will have high quality players so that the 11 players on the field will all be local players.

"We aim to see the impact of this programme in the next five to six years so that local football clubs will no longer be dependent on foreign players and will be more comfortable using local players," he said in an interview with Bernama here recently. .

According to him, so far this year, Perak FC have targeted eight districts for the programme starting in Perak Tengah on July 29 at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Sultan Muhammad Shah Parit and the second at SMK Sultan Abu Bakar Al Baqir in Kerian on Aug 12.

"We will continue the next sessions at SMK Sultan Idris Shah II in Hulu Perak (Aug 26), SMK Raja Shahriman Manjung (Sept 9), SMK Khir Johari in Mualim (Sept 30) and SMK Abdul Rahman Talib in Hilir Perak (Oct 7). while Kinta and Larut Matang and Selama districts on Oct 21 and Nov 4.

"We are aware that grassroots development is one of the most important elements in creating a successful football club, we are paying attention to this matter to find new talent in Perak," he said.

Abdul Azim said the "Grassroots Playday Festival Series II" at SMK Abu Bakar Al-Baqir (SABAR), Bagan Serai had attracted a total of 201 primary school students from around Kerian.

"The participants of this programme were exposed to the basic techniques of football by coaches from Perak FC led by Raja Azlan Shah Raja So'ib as Head of Development and Talent Search (KPPB) of Perak FC.

"”Although we estimated participation of only around 120 participants, the response was very encouraging and even in Perak Tengah we received 134 participants and in each school created a District Training Centre (DTC) to become a talent search network," he said.

Touching on teams, he said that he believed the support of all agencies or government-linked companies (GLCs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as well as state governments was very important in ensuring the survival of the national football industry.

"People who want to contribute is like the 'chicken and egg' philosophy, that is which comes first and similarly in football sponsors want teams to win first and then they want to contribute.

"However, a team that wants to win needs large contributions or funds to create a great team in addition to improving the team's performance, but so far Perak FC have many sponsors from within XOX (telecommunications company XOX Berhad) itself.

"So we are trying our best to attract more external sponsors for next year in order to further improve the team's performance," he said.

Commenting on the dispute between Perak FC and its former coach, Datuk Lim Teong Kim, Abdul Azim said the matter did not interfere with all the plans for the development aspects prepared by the club.

"The decision to let him go was a decision from the Perak FC management as well as the Perak FC Board of Directors and I am sure he (Teong Kim) also knows about this because I myself have spoken to him face-to- face twice.

"That's why we always stressed on Teong Kim before that our target is the middle position in the (Super) league so that the target from the sponsor can be achieved but maybe fate is not on his side and we had to let him go," he said.

-- BERNAMA