KUALA LUMPUR – MYCoachingHub is ready to collaborate with the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) to be the voice defending, empowering, and protecting the rights of youth football coaches in the country.
The coaching committee, founded last year by Visnu Nair, the eldest son of former national head coach B. Sathianathan, has been active in the local football scene by creating a free online platform tailored for coaches seeking to enhance their profession through coaching courses.
The committee, which has a total of 400 youth football coaches – mainly coaches from academies and grassroots levels – provides tactical masterclasses, as well as lessons on pre and post-match interviews, and football analytics.
Speaking to Scoop, Visnu said that his committee is working on establishing a private entity with the help of professionals to also manage the welfare of youth coaches in the country.
“We are here to drive the youth coaches as we want to empower them in the industry.
“We also would like to take care of their welfare and make sure they receive what they are due as we have been unofficially receiving complaints about some of them being underpaid or not being paid for their services accordingly.
“The Football Coaches’ Association of Malaysia (PJBM) already exists, and we all know that they are the main voice of the professional and elite coaches, but we also need one for the youth football coaches, and that’s where we are ready to come into the picture.
“I’m not going to tell people how they should do their jobs and what they are supposed to do, but I would love my entity to be the voice for the youth coaches.
“We are in the process of forming a team, and the professionals running this entity will probably be those from the National Football Development Programme (NFDP) and the Mokhtar Dahari Academy (AMD). We will make a formal announcement in a week or two.
“I envision ourselves in five to ten years to incorporate all sports (not only football) under one roof and provide them with the best opportunities available to further enhance their coaching skills, as well as to empower them by providing youth coaches with job opportunities. For example, having football coaches coach at government schools,” said Visnu.
Visnu also applauded FAM for considering his proposal and also hoped for support from the Youth and Sports Minister, Hannah Yeoh, to turn his idea into a reality.
“We recently met with FAM secretary-general Datuk Noor Azman Rahman, and he’s a really progressive person who always encourages new ideas.
“He has agreed to the proposal, and right now, we are waiting for their reply on the direction we will be going, whether through a coaching education department or another entity within FAM.
“Honestly, we want to compliment FAM as we know they are doing a great job handling our national teams. With our private entity, we want to help FAM. It’s not about what we want from them, but we want to look at what we can give them – and we can work with them in all aspects to make football better in our country.
“We have also officially written a letter to the sports minister as we know how much she cares about the youth, and we are waiting to meet her to get her blessings as well,” Visnu added.
PJBM, established in 1994 and falling under FAM, is currently the only association specifically catered to protecting and defending the rights of the country’s professional football coaches.
Under its president, Datuk Ong Kim Swee, there are currently around 700 active members in the association.
Formerly the vice president, Kim Swee assumed the role of acting president following the passing of B. Sathianathan who died of cancer last year. – February 24, 2024