Who is at fault ?

First of all, this is not a blame game. This is a topic that I would like to discuss and see if there are any solutions.

I would like to touch on who is at fault if a youth player fail to progress or even losing interest completely in football. This is a situation that do really happen to talented youth players. During my playing days with PKNP, I am fortunate enough to be surrounded by very very talented players but they have not made it to the pro level which is a big loss for the development of football. So who is at fault ?

Parents ? Maybe, just maybe. I take an example for myself. To be honest, my parents did not fully support me during my youth playing days. My dad does come out and watch me play sometimes, but thats about it. He never really try to find me a better club to train with, never really comment on my game although I know my dad was a good player before. My mom, she was the worst as most of the typical Asian moms. For them, football has no future and study is the main priority. Lacking parents support I think does affect the growth of a potential player. Comparing to my mate, Chan Wing Hong, his dad drive him every single day to train with a club full of ex pros. And that actually makes a big difference as he is definitely well ahead of me by training with a group of experience players at a young age. He went on to play for Perak, Malaysia and currently still plying his trades in M-League.

I was lucky enough to be spotted during the PKNP football clinic. Thats where I got my offer to play for PKNP youth team and indirectly put me together with the current youth state team players as at that time, all but me in the PKNP squad was from the SM Gunung Rapat Football Project School. Being presented a chance to train with the best did keep me interested in football and I started to progress from there. I wonder what will happen if I was not spotted at the first place. I might not even play football anymore.

Support from parents are really important, but that comes with a limit. If its not checked, it can easily turn into pressure for the youth player. To to release the pressure, that potential player might give up on football all together.

Enough of the parents, how about the youth club system ? We all know back in Malaysia, youth football development is very poor especially for our local boys. No doubt there are many youth clubs back home, but how many are properly set up. I have surveyed a few local clubs in Malaysia that in my opinion is not doing enough. Many of those only train Saturday and Sunday. We all know practices makes perfect and how on earth these youth players can progress by only training on the weekends. If a player got selected for the District or State, yes they do train everyday but how long is the season ? We all know youth football season for district and state level in Malaysia is short. Where do they go after that ? Back to club football that train on weekends ? Also out of millions of youths in Malaysia, only a handful will be selected for the districts and state, what happen to those that have potential to improve ? Club football that train on weekends ? No way they can catch up with these better skill players.

Another problem for a youth football club is, grouping talented players together with other players that are not on par with them. A talented player if put together with a so so player, that talented player will not train as hard. I can guarantee that !! That talented player's progress will be stunted as he does not need to train hard in order to get into the starting line up. He knows he will play no matter what. It will be a different case if this talented player is group together with players of his same level. He will need to fight hard to gain a place in the team. He will have to battle. And by this, that talented player will continue his progress to be a better player.

Grouping of different level players in a same team happens as all youth clubs needs to make certain amount of money. And I am not talking about profit. I am talking about the cost of running a youth football club. Field rentals, coaches salary, administration fees, jerseys, equipments, setting up matches and the list goes on. The cost of running a youth football club is massive. This indirectly makes the club needs to take all level of players interested in joining the club. If not, there is no way a youth club can survive unless that youth club has its own field or having a lot of sponsors thus enabling them to choose the best. If not, that youth club can't afford to turn away players that did not make the grade as every fees paid by a player helps the club to survive.

So..who is at fault ?