HRH Sultan Ahmad Shah to visit Cambodia

His Royal Highness Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah, the President of Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) will visit the Kingdom of Cambodia from 24 to 26 March 2011.

During the vist His Royal Highness will pay a courtesy call to the Football Federation of Cambodia (FFC) in Phnom Penh and have discussions with FFC President, General Sokha Sao and senior leaders of the federation on closer cooperation between the two national associations.

His Royal Highness delegation includes FAM Deputy President, His Royal Highness Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah and General Scretary, Dato Azzuddin Ahmad.  

Back to grassroots for Women’s Football

Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) hopes the five day FIFA-FAM Women Grassroots Course and Festival will be a catalyst to develop women’s football in all the states.
“We hope through this course, the participants will gain insights into how to develop and coordinate programs at grassroots and this will go a long way in helping raise the standard of women’s football in our country,” said FAM General Secretary, Dato’ Azzuddin Ahmad.
30 participants from all over the country are participating in this course being held at the National Sports Council in Bukit Jalil. Two Instructors from FIFA, Samuel Schweiggruber and former Germany’s national coach Monika Staab are conducting the course.
“The fact that many more wanted to attend this course is an indication of the growing interest in football and I believe this has got to do with the national team’s victory in the AFF-Suzuki Cup last year,” said Dato Azzuddin.

“Unfortunately we can only have 30 participants for this course.”

During the five days, the participants will be given an insight into FIFA’s development programs and the philosophy of grassroots football as well as world- wide development and newest trends in development programs.
There will also be sessions on basic skills and also preparation of grassroots football festival and tournaments.
FAM, according to Dato’ Azzuddin, disbanded the women's national football team after the 2009 SEA Games and senior players with vast experience would be considered for coaching jobs in the states.
"They will assist the FAM to identify talented players at the grassroots level. Before forming a new women's national squad, FAM would focus on programs aimed at developing the sport at grassroots level throughout the country, to unearth more players.

“Development programs at the grassroots level had already started in April last year but such programs involved only the Klang valley and Negeri Sembilan,’’ said Dato’ Azzuddin.

Meanwhile, former national skipper Angela Kais, 31, said though she was saddened by the decision to disband the women's national team, she welcomed FAM's decision to focus on grassroots development.

"Since the team has been disbanded, we will have no team to play but since we will still play a part in development programs organized by the FAM, it will us a chance to contribute our part, especially to identify new players," she said.

National team get sufficient funding

WITH a targeted top 14 finish the national netball team received their biggest morale booster as they prepared for the World Netball Championships in Singapore on July 3-10.
The team will be sufficiently funded in their lengthy preparation, thanks to support received via the fund-raising Charity Golf for Netball event held at the Glenmarie Golf and Country Club in Shah Alam yesterday.

The event was jointly-organised by the Tan Sri Muhyiddin Charity Golf (TSM), which also saw the participation of Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Sports Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek.

Malaysian Netball Association (MNA) president Suraya Yaacob said the bulk of funding required has already been footed by the National Sports Council (NSC), while proceeds from the charity golf event covered the rest.
"We require a total of RM400,000 for the whole programme and the players have already gone through rigorous selection, centralised training and preparation, which will include a stint in Perth, Australia," said Suraya.

"We are ranked 16th out of the 16 nations that qualified for the World Championships, but we've been the top ranked team among the juniors in Asia for four consecutive years.

"With a good development squad, we will now be looking towards improving our ranking on the international stage."

Suraya added that for the final phase of training, the initial squad of 26 players has already been trimmed to 16 players, who will form the squad for the World Championships.

Seksyen 11 top former champs

FORMER champions SMK Seksyen 11 of Selangor gained some measure of respect in the Under-14 Minister of Education League Cup (MELC) 2011 when they edged SMK Putera 1-0 in a clash of former champions.
SMK Seksyen 11 were the inaugural winners of the MELC in 2008 but last week in their first game of the new season, they were humiliated 2-0 by SMK Seri Kota of Malacca.

But this time round, playing against the 2009 champions, it gave them the impetus to lift their game with the winner coming from Muhammad Afiq Muhammad Azam in the 53rd minute.

"We played our real game today (Saturday) although the finishing was not that good as we missed a few good chances," said Mat Dinos Talib, the chief coach of SMK Seksyen 11.


SMK Putera, who had picked up their first full points against SMK Za'aba of Negri Sembilan last week, felt playing away twice in their first two games of the season was the cause of their defeat.

"We played two away games already and next week we will be travelling to Penang. The players are tired having to travel for back-to-back matches," said Mohd Hanapiah Awang, the chief coach of SMK Putera.

"With lack of rest, it affects our performance. But this is no excuse as we will try to play our best in the next match away."

In the meantime, SMK Tabuan Jaya of Sarawak are the surprise leaders of Group A with four points from two games.

They followed up their away win over Penang's SMK Mutiara Impian last week with a 1-1 draw against SMK Za'aba of Negri Sembilan.



In Group B, SMK Syed Hassan of Perlis lead the group - also with four points from two matches. After beating SMK Peter Monjuntin of Sabah 3-1 at home last week, they held Bandar Penawar Sports School to a goalless draw last week.

Rajagobal happy with players

THE national team's 1-1 draw with S-League side Etoile FC on Saturday was a good learning curve for K. Rajagobal's side.
Despite looking fragile at times which could prove costly in upcoming tournaments. Ahmad Fakri Saraani's seventh minute strike did provide a glimpse of the team's potential.

They looked comfortable on the ball once they had found their rhythm. But there was too much desperate defending and ball chasing to suggest they could prove a surprise package at the 2014 World Cup Qualifiers Asian Zone Qualifying campaign.

Etoile, the defending S-League champions, could have won the match if they had been sharper in front of goal. There were many faults in Malaysia's game, especially with their leaky defence, led by Aidil Zafuan Abd Radzak, which allowed the Etoile strikers to dictate terms especially in the second half.
However, fans should not be alarmed with Malaysia's performance on Saturday as Rajagobal was trying out new players and strategies.

The coach is hoping to create more options in terms of having a bigger pool of players ahead of the World Cup Qualifiers.

Rajagobal has done it before ahead of the 2009 Laos Sea Games and last December's AFF Cup, which subsequently helped his side lift both titles.

"I am happy with what I saw in the players today (Saturday). They showed commitment and dedication throughout the match," Rajagobal, 54, told Astro Arena at Jalan Besar Stadium after the match.

"As it was only a practice match, I took the opportunity to test all my players. I wanted to see whether they, especially the new ones, were able to maintain their composure and pace."

Among the players Rajagobal tested for the first time this year were Selangor midfielder Azidan Sarudin and Kelantan centreback Mohd Rizal Fahmi Rosid, both playing in their first senior match, and Kedah Baddrol Bakhtiar, who is back after a long layoff due to injury, with a brief second half appearance.

Rajagobal said the team played well but were guilty of losing their focus on occasions. "There are areas that need to be rectified. My players must learn to keep their focus throughout the 90 minutes," added Rajagobal.

"It was a difficult match as my team were against a French club who had bigger and taller players. But I am happy we played them as the experience will help my boys get use to playing physically stronger players."



Malaysia's opponents in the first round of the World Cup Asian Zone Qualifiers will be known on Wednesday. The two-leg first round qualifiers are on June 29 and July 3.

Rajagobal's side are also scheduled to play quality matches when they host English Premier League giants Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool in a 10-day football festival in Kuala Lumpur in July.

Under-16 and 15 teams to train in Slovakia

Slovakia has invited FA of Malaysia (FAM) to send the National Under-15 and Under-16 squad for training and to participate in their youth league next year.

FAM deputy president KDYTM Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah said the offer was made in recognition of Malaysia winning the AFF-Suzuki Cup last year.

"This is a good opportunity for the youngsters to gain exposure. We will work out the details together with the Education Ministry," he told reporters after chairing a meeting of FAM's technical and youth development committee at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya, Tuesday.

Last year, FAM sent the National Under-21 squad for training in Slovakia whereby the team played in the Slovakian League from February till May, which paid huge dividends as most of the players who played in the AFF-Suzuki Cup were from it.

Tengku Abdullah also said the meeting decided to give Malaysia's Olympic squad coach Ong Kim Swee the opportunity to coach the National-Under 23 team in preparing of the SEA Games in Indonesia in November.

"His target is to defend the title we won at the last SEA Games in Laos. We want our coaches to have the exposure in preparing team for tournaments like SEA Games   ," he said.

National chief coach K.Rajagobal has been given new targets, which include the pre-World Cup, to defend the AFF-Suzuki Cup and also to qualifying for the 2015 Asian Cup.
The meeting also appointed Ismail Ibrahim as the Head Coach of the National Under-19 team and Aminuddin Hussin as the National Under-18 Head Coach.
Meanwhile, KDYTM Tengku Abdullah has proposed that a panel be set up to widen the talent pool of footballers in the country.
“Just look at Japan, they have some 200,000 youngsters to draw from. I believe with a more coordinated effort we took can widen the talent base.”

Well done boys

Malaysia advanced to the second round of the Asian Zone Olympic qualifiers with a 2-0 aggregate win over Pakistan after a goalless draw in Lahore, Wednesday.
Malaysia’s Olympic squad defeated Pakistan 2-0 in the first match on Feb 23 at the Shah Alam Stadium and Wednesday the youngsters did well to hold the host team to a 0-0 draw, which was more than enough to send the team to the second round.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) will conduct the draw on Mar 30 to determine the fixtures for the second round where the winners of the first round will have to face seeded teams.
The second round matches will be on a home and away basis and are scheduled to be played on June 19 and 23 with the winners advancing to the third round which will have 12 teams that will be divided into three groups. The winners of the groups qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.

Malaysia last qualified for the Moscow Olympics in 1980 but did not play because of a boycott of the Games as a result of the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.
In Wednesday’s match, Malaysian Head Coach, Ong Kim Swee left out striker Ahmad Shakir Ali and brought in Gary Steven Robbat as an extra man in midfield. By doing so, Kim Swee opted for a more conservative approach for the second leg.
The move paid off and Malaysia held on to the 2-0 first leg win to advance on a 2-0 aggregate.