KUALA LUMPUR — The National Sports Council (NSC) is set to meet with the top leadership of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) on April 28 to chart the way forward for the National Football Development Programme (NFDP).
NSC director-general Jefri Ngadirin said the meeting will focus on an assessment report by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), which was received in January.
“On the 28th of this month, we will hold a meeting with the top leadership of FAM to discuss what is the next step on the report submitted by the AFC,” he told reporters at a press conference here today.
“In the AFC report, we will see the totality of the structure (NFDP), what is the role of the FAM, NSC and the Education Ministry… If the process is completed, we hope to wait for the next announcement by Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh.”
The NFDP, launched in 2014, is designed to raise the standard of Malaysian football by developing talent at the grassroots level and producing players capable of competing internationally.
However, questions have been raised about the programme’s effectiveness after the national Under-16 squad failed to qualify for the 2025 AFC U-17 Asian Cup.
Jefri, who officially took up his post at NSC on April 4, said he has since held a series of engagement sessions with athletes, national sports associations (NSAs) and key stakeholders to gather feedback for a future national sports policy.
Among his immediate priorities, he said, is the formation of a committee to implement athlete welfare initiatives and assess NSC facilities.
He also aims to accelerate funding disbursements to NSAs, enhance the competency of technical officers, and reinforce their role in delivering national sports programmes.
“Many of our athletes are ageing, so we need to identify new talent and train them as well as expose them at the highest level in future,” he said. — April 18, 2025