Sarawak o Sarawak

KUCHING: Sarawak, long derailed from the Malaysian soccer scene, is making a determined effort to get “back on the right track.”Social Development and Urbanisation Minister Dato Sri William Mawan said yesterday, “With the restructuring of FAS and the establishment of Sarawak Football Development Steering Committee, we hope Sarawak can make a come back and move forward soon.”Speaking to reporters after meeting FAS officials in his office, Mawan said two ways had been identified to develop soccer in the state. One is “immediate term” and the other “long term”.He said the immediate term plan would be undertaken by FAS president Murni Suhaili and secretary-general Abu Bakar Marzuki. “For the intermediate term plan, FAS would be coming up with its own blueprint on the restructuring plans and strategies to improve the state senior soccer team in about two weeks time,” he said.For the long term development programme, it would be undertaken by the SFDSC which is headed by Social Development and Urbanisation Ministry permanent secretary Ik Pahon Joyik. He will be assisted by Murni, who is SFDSC deputy chairman.Mawan said the main idea in coming up with the twin development plans was to lay a solid foundation to ensure long term success by the state team, and soccer in general.“Without a solid foundation, what you win today can be gone tomorrow,” he reasoned.Meanwhile, Ik Pahon, who was also at the news conference, said the main idea behind the creation of the SFDSC was to bring in all parties involved in soccer development under one roof so that development could be implemented in a holistic manner.“In the past, the State Sports Council has their own football development programme, FAS has their own, Youth and Sports Department, and Education Department have theirs.“The new strategy is that all the football organisations will come together under one committee to chart programmes for, say, the next five years,” he said.Ik Pahon said the new framework would cover the development of players, organisation of more competitions, and upgrading of coaches at the school level.He explained that the immediate concern of the committee was what to do with the potential players who would be leaving school between the ages of 17 and 21.“This committee will keep track of footballers even after they left school. We will take care of them. Taking care means they will have to be with the team if they are still interested to play.“Maybe we have to pay some allowances so that they stick around. Hopefully, after that FAS can absorbed them into the senior team,” he said.