Education Ministry plan to revive M'sian football

The Education Ministry plans to absorb the football academies of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) into its state sports schools next year under a long-term blueprint of the ministry to improve the standard of Malaysian football.
Deputy Education Minister Datuk Noh Omar said that at the same time, the ministry's sports project schools in every state would be converted to state sports schools to cater specifically to students active in sports.
"The plan is to create sportsmen and sportswomen continuously over the long term," he told reporters after a dinner held for the Penang footballers who participated in the recent Danone Nations Cup in Lyon, France, at the Teluk Kumbar Water Sports Centre here Tuesday night.
He said the FAM had agreed in principle to the proposal.
Noh said that under the plan, the FAM would provide the football professionals and the ministry would provide the financial allocation, sports facilities and the players.
Currently, the FAM uses the secondary technical schools in every state to run its football academy.
Noh said the ministry plan would ensure that only students who excelled in any core sport at district level were selected to join the state sports schools which now have a mix of students active in sports and ordinary students as well.
He also said that under the plan, the ministry with the collaboration of the FAM would set up under-12 and under-14 teams, with the players being trained to eventually don the national jersey.
The ministry would also run twinning projects in collaboration with overseas schools or clubs next year, he added.
Noh said all the players of the Penang Danone Nations Cup team would be allowed to enrol at the Sekolah Mutiara Impian state sports school in Simpang Apat, Seberang Perai Selatan, next year without taking into account their Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) examination result.
In the tournament in France, held between June