Speaking to FMT, Peter Velappan, who served as AFC secretary-general for nearly three decades, said Malaysia had the potential to be the number one footballing country in Asia, owing to its racial and cultural diversity.
“We have the talent. We proved this in qualifying for the 1972 and 1980 Olympics. Since then, our whole system of development, coaching and team leadership has gone downhill, so we can’t produce top class talent.”
Velappan said a key reason why Malaysia had not been able to produce talent equal to the “golden generation” of the 70s and 80s, was the lack of diversity.
“In my time, any state team, you would have had Malays, Chinese, and Indians. But today, where are the Chinese and the Indians?”
So, he said, state leadership and coaching systems needed to be revamped, in an effort to bring all Malaysians back into the fold.
“There’s not enough inclusivity. Indians and Chinese are passionate about football, we see them following matches of foreign leagues, but somehow they’re not in the picture here, even at a state level.”
Velappan also said it was hard to build a strong foundation of diverse players when Malaysian children didn’t study or play together anymore.
He said when students did not play together, “we can’t harness that diverse talent”.
On whether national team coach Nelo Vingada should be sacked following the team’s failure to win any of their qualifying matches for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, Velappan said he shouldn’t be sacked.
“The coach is only as good as his players. So you can’t just put the blame on him.”
Yesterday, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin had said that sacking Vingada wouldn’t resolve anything, as the issues with Malaysian football had been there for some time.
Meanwhile, former national striker James Wong said he too did not think that Vingada should be sacked.
“He’s a new coach, you have to give him time. It’s easy to point fingers because it’s disheartening that we’re losing.
“But even if you bring in proven managers like Alex Ferguson or Jose Mourinho, it doesn’t mean that we’ll be winning trophies,” said Wong, who scored the winning goal for Malaysia to defeat South Korea in 1980 and qualify for the Moscow Olympics the same year.
The Sabahan, known fondly as “King James”, said that Malaysians needed to accept the fact that we won’t be a footballing powerhouse for the next decade or so, due to a lack of quality.
He said Malaysia had talent, but the key was developing that talent and improving their quality.
“We need to go back to the grassroots. There is no quick fix. Look at how the European clubs develop their talent from a very young age, that’s what we need to do.
“We need to have a proper talent development plan and stick to it for the next 10 years.”