Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Butler pushes new ideas
Rizal Abdullah
BRING back the foreign players but not “just cheap African players” and change the kickoff time to 5.30pm so as not to compete with the EPL playing times, to put the spark back into the M-League.
These are among the proposals Kelantan coach Peter Butler has proposed to the FA of Malaysia (FAM) who are in the midst of restructuring the M-League after another subdued season.
The Englishman, who took over the Kelantan hot-seat this season and made the East Coast team into one of the most attractive sides in the M-League this season, has also suggested that each team must register four Under-20 players in the 18-player squad instead of the current two.
“A team should field four Under-20 players and three must be playing and one on the bench. Many coaches are afraid of giving young kids a chance and always field the senior players,” said Butler.
“The FAM should also allow three foreign players in a team.
The current ban on foreigners has destroyed the credibility of the Malaysian football. Teams must hire quality foreign players…not cheap African players. These foreigners will give the M-League the excitement that is lacking.
“Reschedule the kickoff time. The present 8.45pm kickoff is not doing the game here any good. People do not want to match at that time of the night and it speaks of the empty terraces week and week out, except for two or three stadiums.
“Playing matches 5.30pm is an ideal time and this has been proven in Indonesia.”
Butler also suggested that over a 12-month period, all Super League coaches must attend coaching workshops every month at the FAM (last Sunday of every month) with each coach having to put on a session in front of his peers.
He added that if any coach does not attend 75 per cent of the sessions, his coaching licence should be suspended until he completes the required number of hours. Butler also called on the FAM to look into community officers in every team like those in England.
“Every club should have a community officer who controls school visits for players like in the UK. All local players should be required to take their C license and they can double up as community coaches working to develop the game here.
“They can go into schools and organisations to promote the game by having fun games and small-sided games. Too many local players are lazy and earn too much money and they just want to lay in bed all day, eat and sleep and then go for training.
“They do not want to learn or promote the game. It should be made compulsory that every player should do a minimum of eight (8) hours a week working in the school and conduct Q and A sessions and coaching the young kids.
“Take the game to the masses and don’t wait for the masses to come to you because they will not,” said Butler, adding that youth development is a long term project.
COMMENT - a lot of sense spoken by Butler but I fear he is talking to a brick wall. They can be a prickly lot them Malaysians when they feel a foreigner is trying to tell them what to do. Now, if it was Sir Alex saying the same things they would probably etch the words in stone...
# posted by Me @ 5:23 PM 
