KUALA LUMPUR – All national coaches and athletes must now complete mandatory Safe Sport training as a prerequisite for contract renewals, a key step in a broader strategy that will culminate in a public national registry of accredited coaches.
The policy marks a proactive shift from merely punishing misconduct to actively preventing it, ensuring a safer sporting environment from elite to grassroots levels.
Datuk Shalin Zulkifli, head of the National Sports Council’s (NSC) MACE secretariat, confirmed that Safe Sport and anti-doping training are now non-negotiable requirements for national athletes and coaches.
“We’ve made it mandatory for them to go through Safe Sport Code training and Adamas (Anti-Doping Agency of Malaysia) training. These are now part of their contracts,” she said on Scoop’s Sport Check podcast.
The move directly supports Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh’s plan to implement a vetting and accreditation mechanism for coaches.
As previously reported by Scoop, Hannah said her ministry is working with the National Sports Institute (NSI) to create a national registry that would allow parents and stakeholders to verify that coaches are qualified and safely vetted.
Shalin explained that the collaboration is divided between agencies: the MACE (Malaysian Athletes Career and Education) unit oversees athlete training, while the NSI’s National Coaching Academy is tasked with delivering the mandatory training for coaches.
“Every stakeholder needs to play their part,” she said, stressing the importance of a coordinated effort.
This push for a safer sporting culture extends beyond the national training centre in Bukit Jalil.
Shalin highlighted a recent Safe Sport Tour, which visited 11 states ahead of the 2024 Malaysia Games (Sukma) to raise awareness among athletes, coaches, and officials.
“We did the tour because Sukma represents the lowest level of high-performance sport we can access at the grassroots,” she said.
The impact was immediate — several misconduct cases were reported during the Games, a sign that the initiative had empowered individuals to come forward.
Such ground-level efforts form the foundation of the ministry’s national registry, ensuring that by the time a coach’s name is made public, they will have completed a comprehensive process of education and certification — building trust and transparency across Malaysian sport. — August 2, 2025