Malaysia’s Mohd Zaquan Adha (L) dribbles past Manchester United’s Paul Scholes in a friendly on July 18

The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) has rebounded from match-fixing scandals and discouraging national team defeats by focusing on young talent rather than star power.

A mammoth match-fixing scandal in 1995 shook Malaysian football and the association FAM expelled a hundred players.

But the country did not cry defeat nor lament the past—instead FAM recovered by redoubling its efforts to develop new talent.

Since then, the national team has been more successful than ever with fresh new faces added every year.

The national squad has at least 10 players under 23 each year while the majority of the Malaysian U23 team is under 20 and most of the U20 team is under 17.

Filling the gap

“Malaysia aims to rejuvenate the national team as often as possible,” said Bhaskaran R Sathianathan, who coached Malaysia at the 2008 Myanmar Grand Royal Challenge Cup.

“If our biggest stars are lazy or in bad form for any reason, we immediately replace them with younger players.

“Young players lack experience but they are strong and have a burning desire to take wins, so they’re good enough to fill the gap.”

Sathianathan admitted that the strategy wasn’t an easy way to produce results, but he said the plan had the support of the Malaysian public for “using the young players to clean up the dirty marks.”

The system has delivered on several occasions.

One year after the match-fix scandal rocked the country, the national team, replete with Malaysia’s new generation of footballers, were the runners up at the 1996 Tiger Cup in Singapore, where midfielder K. Sanbagaraman made his exceptional debut.

Training

In 2000, Malaysia also began sending young players to training centers operated by English club Arsenal such as the Indra Putra and Haradin Omar facilities.

More recently, a number of young players have been sent to Europe or Brazil for intensive training. Several of these footballers have since played excellently on Malaysia’s U23 team.

In another huge move, the FAM has this season banned local clubs from employing foreign players in a bid to encourage local talent.

Fans say the move might make the M-League less exciting but the association is determined to get local players more playing time.

Supporters of the program said it had become disheartening to watch an M-League in which most of the major stars were African players.

Tournament experience

In addition to encouraging local youngsters, Malaysia has also taken steps to give its players more international competition experience by hosting major tournaments at home.

Malaysia then held the 2007 Champions Youth Cup in Kuala Lumpur with the participation of big-name U19 teams from Europe and South America such as Manchester United, Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Arsenal, Boca Junior and Flamengo.

The young Malaysians didn’t compete particularly well against the international giants, but it was a learning experience.

Malaysia also co-hosted the 2007 ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Cup in Kuala Lumpur. Though the team only took third place, tied with Vietnam, it was yet another chance to grow and practice.

Several players from the 2007 U19 Malaysian team, then coached by Dutchman Robert Alberts, were moved to the national team in 2008.

The U19s are now training for their campaign for the gold medal at the AFF Cup 2012. Coach Ong Kim Swee has been assigned to select young players to send to Europe for training before the tournament.

The U23 team under coach K. Rajagopal aims to advance to the finals at the Southeast Asian Games in Laos in December this year.

A Malaysian squad with mainly U23 players played excellently in a July 18 friendly with Manchester United and only lost 2-3.

Reported by Quang Tuyen