For some time now I’ve been a worried man. It was obvious from the past two articles I wrote about the National Football Development Programme (NFDP).
The articles published in Twentytwo13 were ‘Govt-funded NFDP must address under-representation in football‘ (July 8) and ‘NFDP produces talents but fails in placements‘ (June 25).
Would the programme be able to address the issues regarding the placement of its graduates or players? Must they behave more like a public commodity by addressing the under-representation (gender and race) prevalent in the sport?
The evidence so far doesn’t look good. Despite being launched six years ago, the programme so far looks half-baked. Owned by the government, the Mokhtar Dahari Academy director is Dutchman Dennis Bekking – the former Twente FC academy director – while Frenchman Saad Ichalalene is the technical director.
I met Ichalalene in Kuala Lumpur towards the end of last year. Joining me were then Sporting Clube de Portugal (Sporting CP) chief executive officer Miguel Cal and Nuno Fernando Cardoso, Sporting CP head of international business. We reached out to several people in NFDP but only Ichalalene was keen to meet up and explore possibilities.
I was hoping the meeting would help me allay my fears about NDFP, but Ichalalene did no such thing. For an hour, he talked in microscopic detail about talent development and growth. He spoke about everything – from the difference of focus in training at differing age groups and how if not properly planned may lead to an early burnout at such a young age. We were also informed about the importance of nutritional planning, and I thought, ‘oh no. I’m going to be here until I die’.
Ichalalene wasn’t finished. The following hour, we were told how this programme is different from the other talent development programmes due to the direct involvement of the government. The expectations are different and the need for the programme to be validated is critical. I needed more coffee to stay awake.
This is the problem with people who are too technical. They like to analyse every single detail of every single part of the talent development. That’s fine. Ichalalene has done an amazing job developing young Malaysian football talents. But there’s a downside, which is plain for all to see. It doesn’t justify the investment from the taxpayers.
Ichalalene and the Youth and Sports Ministry seem to be overly concerned about validation on the field, on the technical aspect of the programme. The performance of the country’s Under-18 squad at the 2020 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-19 Championship in Uzbekistan would be among the basis for assessing the effectiveness of the NFDP.
“The performance of the U-18 squad will be the yardstick, as many trainees from NFDP are in that squad. At least, it would give me an opportunity to make an assessment in order to plan the programmes under the NFDP,” Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican was quoted as saying.
No one is arguing about the technical achievements of the programme. There is definitely room for improvement, but the bigger concern is rather on the trait or characteristics of the programme to justify millions of ringgit of taxpayers’ funding.
If the programme needed validation, Sporting CP offered to manage the east coast region of NFDP for a small fee and ensured that within two years, a minimum of two of our talents will be absorbed to the Sporting Academy in Lisbon, Portugal. The same academy that gave birth and paved way for talents like Luis Figo, Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani and Bruno Fernandes.
As mentioned in my previous articles, the programme must address the concerns regarding the placement of its graduates. Not just the cream of the crop, but all of their graduates.
The process must be fair and equitable to all local football clubs. The programme must also implement a sustainable practice that will not require continuous or permanent injection of funds from the government.
Most importantly, as a government-funded programme, it must address the prevalent gender and racial under-representation in the sport. This is essential as the programme will then be seen as an investment that benefits all faction of the community and not just a specific few.
The fact remains: we cannot do away with NFDP. The programme compensates the serious lack of youth development among state football associations. These associations and clubs have their work cut out competing for silverware and the last thing they need is to be distracted from the job with all those angry, unforgiving fans.
The existence of NFDP has paved the way for the country to put in motion a plan similar to the drafting system practised in the United States, where nurtured talents are fairly distributed via a system that takes into account the football clubs standing within the professional leagues. Not only will such a system allow equal opportunities to clubs to gain access to graduate at NFDP, but also ensure that the graduates can continuously pursue their football careers.
Technically, NFDP is like Proton. But to be a ‘perfect’ national brand, the stakeholders simply need to do some important modifications that can make the brand more than just a factory that produces talents.
And that’s a tempting prospect because it means you can truly have a Proton – not a Volvo with a Proton badge.
This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Twentytwo13.
