M'sian input in Oman, Qatar soccer leagues
Published on: Monday, December 14, 2015
Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Mohd Saifuddin Abu Bakar has been making it good in the professional football leagues of Qatar and Oman.The 55-year-old Saifuddin, who became the first Malaysian football administrator to work overseas eight years ago, is currently the technical consultant of competitions and professional league with the Oman Football Association (OFA).Prior to his engagement with OFA three years ago, he was assistant head of competitions for the Qatar Stars League from May 2009 to Oct 2012.
ADVERTISEMENT
Saifuddin has over 23 years of sports management experience dating back to his days as technical and youth development officer with the FA of Selangor, from 1991 to 1995.He has been exposed to various football management elements including infrastructure, youth development, senior team development, refereeing and coordination of international competitions. He has excelled in competition management, event management and security and licensing programmes for football associations.Saifuddin said he owes a great deal of his experience to the tutelage of former Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) general secretary, Datuk Paul Mony."Mony is my guru. He is vastly experienced and his professional approach makes him stand out as a great administrator. I owe my knowledge acquired to him," he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Saifuddin served in various departments in FAM and he was also assistant general secretary for the national body from November 2007 to 2009.He launched the Oman Professional League in 2013, and there are currently 14 professional clubs in the Omani Pro-League with another 30 amateur clubs linked to OFA.
ADVERTISEMENT
"The Pro-League was launched not just with the intention of having foreign players, but for the overall development of the game in the country," Saifuddin said.The Oman Pro-League is an independent governing body under the OFA and was set up with the guidance of Saifuddin. He focused on legalities, infrastructure, technical development, referees and licensing, all of which he placed on his priority list in setting up the Pro-League."It was difficult initially as most clubs were set in their ways and were not responding well to changes and the requirements of setting up a professional club," said Saifuddin, who also worked with the AFC between 2007 and 2009."But with strong support from the Ministry of Sports, which helped each club set up their own clubhouse, their mindset changed."We held many workshops, courses and seminars to educate the administrators and eventually their willingness to change saw the league run professionally."Saifuddin, appointed as the National Club Licensing Manager by the OFA, is currently attending a course with AFC in Kuala Lumpur."Football is the No. 1 sport in Oman. Although it only has a population of about four million people, every evening, everywhere, everybody is playing football. This makes it easy to promote and develop the game."Besides the professional league teams and the 30 amateur league teams, each amateur team play in a league in their district where at least 100 teams compete."We also have a good development programme where we have junior leagues for the various age groups," he said.It is no surprise then that Oman is ranked 92nd in the world and ranked seventh in Asia (tied with Jordan).Saifuddin's second two-year contract with OFA ends next year and the football guru said he wanted to return home.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
