PUTRAJAYA, July 10 — The National Football Development Programme (NFDP) is set to receive a shot in the arm with the addition of several new sports personalities, says Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican.
Reezal Merican said this was part of efforts to ensure that the programme was managed by qualified individuals who could bring vitality to the development of young footballers.
“InsyaAllah this month I will hold the first NFDP meeting with FAM. From there, we will look at the statistics and there will be one or two changes...there will be personalities that I will bring in to ensure that those with true passion are in the NFDP.
“I do not know everything, but I need knowledgeable people to be able to help me,” he said when met at the ministry’s headquarters here, today.
Last December, the NFDP was restructured with the appointment of former Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) Academy head coach Saad Ichalalene as the Technical Director.
The streamlined structure also saw the appointment of Dennis Bekking as director of the Mokhtar Dahari Academy (AMD), replacing former Bayern Munich Academy director Lim Teong Kim, as well as the appointment of Abdifitaah Mohamed Hassan (Head of Talent Search and Coaching Methodology) and Aminuddin Hussain (Head of Youth Development).
Meanwhile, Reezal Merican said the performance of the country’s Under-18 (U-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 the U-18 Squad. At least, it would give me an opportunity to make an assessment in order to plan the programmes under the NFDP,” he said.
The 2020 AFC U-19 Championship slated to take place from October 14 to 31, will be the qualifying round for the 2021 U-20 World Cup, and the national U-18 squad aims to emerge as the first Malaysian team to qualify on merit.
Malaysia has been drawn into Group D with former champions, Qatar, as well as Tajikistan and Yemen. — Bernama
