The former Singapore FA star recognize weakness in local football programme
RENOWNED football pundit Abbas Saad believes Malaysia must place great emphasize towards local talents to return to its glory days.
He said the overreliance towards naturalisation process in national team could disrupt the development of young players and lead to long term issues.
“On club level, teams have been improved with the foreigners,” he told theSun. “But for national level, it is going to have a big hit.
“In our time, there will only be two or three foreigners in the team while the majority will be local players who are improving their development to be in national team.
“But now, how many local players are there in starting eleven? Maybe only one or two, so how is it going to help for national team?”
The Australian-born pundit has vast experience with Malaysian football after played in local league with clubs including Singapore FA, which saw him winning the Malaysian Cup 1994.
Abbas also believes regular playing time for local talent will help the national team while adding it can also improve domestic league.
“We all hope the league will get stronger, we need it. Plus, like I said, we need more Malaysian to play in the starting eleven, that is the only way for them to get developed.
“For the naturalisastion process, if the player has good quality, young and have been playing in local league for five years, you can approach them.
“If they are 25 or 26, it will be good. But not at 32 or 34 to give passport to them, for what? How long are they going to serve for you?” he added.
Naturalisation and heritage programmes in Malaysia national football team have been widely discussed with most fans arguing on its impact towards Harimau Malaya.
While the approach helps in improving results in recent years, the development of local talents has also greatly affected proven by the difficulties to gain sufficient playing time at club and international level.
This issue also rocked the national football scene last year when the seven heritage players scandal saw FIFA impose heavy sanctions on those involved.
It subsequently saw huge uproar from majority of the fans that plead Football Association of Malaysia to be much progressive in local talents development.
