Some thoughts on the National Football Development Plan

Bill Price | 18 April 2017 Share

The New Straits Times recently interviewed Khairy Jamaluddin, Malaysia's sports minister, regarding progress of the National Football Development Program (NFDP). The mechanics of sport development is the focus of many of the articles I write for this site so I'm happy to report that the NDFP is hitting all the right notes. You can read the full article here.

The exciting thing about the NDFP is that it is addressing the main sport development issue in Malaysia which is getting as many youngsters involved in sports training as possible. Over 23,000 young players are involved in the football program at 123 centers. Over 1000 coaches support training several times per week.

All of this sounds good and I hope that the Ministry is able to sustain this effort. It will only pay off if it is maintained long-term. The only concern might be that the program is being organized and run by the Ministry of Youth and Sports. Where is the FAM? Why isn't such a massive grassroots development effort organized by the sport association tasked with administering and developing football within the country?

One could argue that the FAM has other issues to deal with if recent press reports are correct. But the fact is that football development should be done by the football association. Why? Because the model offered by the Ministry can't be applied across the board to other sports. It's too much time, too much manpower, and too much money for the Ministry alone to administer. It's a great idea as a pilot project to show associations how it needs to be done but the model will only be successful if sport associations take it upon themselves to implement it in their own way for their own sports.

And let's not forget the money. According to Minister Jamaluddin about 10 million ringgit is spent on the program each year, sometimes more, sometimes less. This is a lot of money that, again, makes it unlikely that the Ministry would be able to create a program like the NFDP for other sports.

NFDP is a shining example of what could be a model for all sport associations

The best thing about the NFDP is that it is able to showcase the way sport development should be done. Project director Lim Teong Kim knows how athletes are created. If each sport could find a person or group of people like Lim and give them the resources they need then development of many sports in Malaysia would ignite.

Sport development is not flashy or sexy. It takes time for any development plans to hatch truly talented performers. When high performance athletes emerge from development programs it briefly shines the spotlight on the development program itself but mostly sport development is something that churns along behind the scenes. Most of the time people take little notice of it. Those not involved in the sport probably don't even know it exists.

The NFDP would be under the radar for most people were it not for the recent article in the New Straits Times. But this is normal; sport development doesn't make headlines. But the programs have to exist if better high performance athletes are the goal.

Can sport associations set up programs similar to the NFDP for their sport? This is the key question that the NFDP raises. Scope and funding may be issues but the overall idea remains the same: get as many youngsters involved in your sport, train them, help them compete, and, most of all, do it over the long-term. It's not a 6-week program and it has to be sustainable.

In the United States the club system takes on the developmental role. Malaysia may need a different model but no matter how it eventually ends up getting done it has to be done if Malaysia is interested in lifting its level of sport performance.

--------
Bill Price is the Chief Information Officer at USSA Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.