Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah Football Association will need a comprehensive transformation plan in order to change the current scenario of football in Sabah and those who carried out the role must have a passion for winning and a desire to see progress of the state team, said Yamani Hafez Musa, who is Sabah FA Futsal and Beach Soccer Committee Chairman."Pro-active steps should be done to reform football in the State and passions will bring success and the enthusiasm of the fans will help packed the stadium with their roars which are sadly lacking at the moment."
He said the current fifth position of the State Premier League can be considered as a failure with healthy budgets allocated in the preparation of the team and a post mortem must be carried out to find the best way to form a strong and successful team in the future.
The lack of programmes in the association's annual calendar also saddened him, he said.
"Even programmes implemented in the 80s and 90s were much better with the staging of annual Inter-zone competition and the various age group competitions such as the inter-zone, Repco Cup (U-23), President Cup (U-21), Steven Cup (U-18) and the Under-14 tournament."
"Today we only see the Sabah Games and the FA only contented with the continuity of the TABs project and the age group tournament organised by Borneo Adventure."
"With no coordination at the district level, it limited our resources to source for future talents and a long term comprehensive planning is very important in producing quality players."
"We must take development seriously as we lack the support of back-up players such as advanced football nations, so we must practice the concept of 'Team Behind The Team' in order to strengthen our team long-term."
Hafez was also surprised to learn that some of the local players only shined playing for other states and flop miserably with the State team.
"Bobby Gonzales , Ronny Harun and Zurandey Jumai are very good examples from the current crop of players and Sumardi Hajalan who once represented the country while playing for Johor FC failed to flourish with the State team."
He called on everyone who loves football, including Safa district to plan and implement their programmes for the future of Sabah football.
