Can't We Look at Middle East For A Change?

(Photo courtesy of The Malaysian Insider website)

Everybody has been talking about a full time national team after the SEA Games success. Now, I think i'll give my two cents worth of opinion.

Let's be frank, to send Malaysia players on overseas attachment is not a good idea - just look at past players who went and came back from Europe, Akmal Rizal, Juzaili Sameon and Rudie Ramli to name a few. No matter how much we tried to make them feel as comfortable as possible, look at them now, back at where they started, M-League.

Former AFC supremo, Dato' Peter Velappan, my former Boss, said it right when he reiterated this phrase that has seem to have stuck in my head during my media officer days, "clubs are the nucleus for football development".

Without club football, how can players improve match fitness, tactical awareness and team cohesion. How many competitive matches can a full time national team offer compared to a club? Friendly matches and club matches fighting for a trophy are two different situations. Also, clubs (not Malaysian ones though) put more pressure on a player to perform rather than national teams, who have longer period to axe players if they under perform. Of course, this creates stress for a player but this is the only way to move forward, akin to setting KPI in a corporate setting.

Going back to clubs, sending our players to Europe is another accident waiting to happen. As usual, same reason like food, weather, language. You can't blame them as most of our good players come from kampungs not from Bangsar, TTDI or Bukit Damansara.

For a change, why can't we consider clubs from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and Kuwait? They are Muslims countries, weather may be hotter, and they speak Arabic. But, we all don't live in a perfect world eh? However, it would suit our players seeing the majority are Muslims, hence the cultural adjustment are not too huge. So, no complaints of food, weather or language either.

If they can make it there, at least, they have a chance to go to Europe in future as a player, not to just warm the bench there due to some higher connection between governments or FAs.