Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak believes that the freshly-launched ‘Liga Bolasepak Rakyat’ will be a terrific platform for Malaysia to continuously unearth more talent within the country.
He pointed out that there are very few platforms for fresh talents to develop, claiming that it contributes to the lack of quality players within the national football scene.
“Despite being the AFF Cup Champions previously, 70 percent of players have come from the Bukit Jalil Sports School.”
“There have been limited channels for new talent to grow, besides not having a proper source to produce it,” he told Arena Metro, during the official launch of the league in Pekan Square, yesterday.
People’s Football League is the joint idea of Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) president Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah and Tengku Mahkota Pahang, with an objective of developing football systematically, besides functioning as an institute to produce talented players for the national side.
A total of 111 teams from all around the world will be joining the amateur-level competition, which is divided to 8 zones, and 520 matches to be played.
Najib also added that the government will be most supportive and believe that the league, which begins the year, will be a starting point for more similar programs to be introduced in the future, in order to locate more hidden talents.
“In accordance to that, the government will allocate RM5 million this year, with Bank Rakyat contributing RM5 million as well, in joint efforts towards the growth of national football.”
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