Malaysian football riots after the defeat at the Asian U23 tournament

At the 2022 AFC U23 Championship, Malaysia lost all 3 matches in the group stage, becoming the team with the second worst defense in the whole tournament (conceding 9 goals), having the second worst attack (scoring only 1 goal, more than Tajikistan). . With 0 points after 3 matches and no chance to continue right from the 2nd match, Malaysia U23 really caused great disappointment.

With the defeat at the 31st SEA Games, coach Brad Maloney’s chair has become more wobbly than ever. The Malaysian newspapers themselves also confirmed that when returning home, the Malaysian U23 training board will have to explain to the federation.

“Malaysian Football Federation President Hamidin is awaiting a full report from Brad Maloney before deciding on the Australian manager’s future.” Harian Metro news.

Meanwhile, there are a lot of disagreements from Malaysian football people. Malaysian Coaches Association president Shady Annathan hit back at federation officials. For now, criticism doesn’t solve the problem, he said.

“The 15 players in the current squad are eligible for the next tournament (Asia U23). Right now, we need a more thoughtful and better plan. Criticism doesn’t change anything. Remember the Young players in the country need quality tournaments to practice.”

Malaysian youth football continuously failed in tournaments like U23 SEA, SEA Games, U23 Asia

Former director of Moda Dahari football academy, Lim Chang Kim, believes that “young players in the country need competitive leagues to elevate Malaysian football”. The official said: “We made an impression at the 2018 AFC U23 Championship (in the quarterfinals). But then everything fell into place.

When the players are under the age of 16, they play a lot of domestic and international matches, but when they grow up they lack friction. We need to fully study the cause of the failure to find a solution. We also need technical, knowledgeable and reliable people, such as a foreign coach. Then have to form groups to find the problem.”

And Shady Anaden, another official of the Malaysian Football Federation, pointed out the existence of this U23 class. He affirmed that the fact that Malaysia has 2 players playing abroad is worthless, because these 2 players hardly get to play for the club, so they do not develop much.

“We need all stakeholders involved and this has to be a national agenda. Football is evolving very quickly and we cannot fall behind,” said Shady Anaden.

“We have some young players playing in the MSL (Malaysian league), but at the same time many other players need to be watched and played to improve.

We cannot expect young players to perform well in MSL right away. Going abroad is also a good thing, but if they can’t play regularly, what’s the point?”