KUALA LUMPUR – A change in leadership at the National Sports Council (NSC) is not ideal with the country’s athletes preparing to compete at two major multi-sports events this year, said its director-general Abdul Rashid Yaakub.
Malaysia’s athletes are gearing up to bring home the nation’s first Olympic gold medal from the Paris Games in July, while the Paralympians are looking to add to the country’s gold haul from the Paralympics in August.
“We at the NSC have prepared from previous years for the upcoming games but the final push leading up to the two multi-sports events is very important.
“While preparations have been underway… partly some have yet to reach maximum levels.
“What is important is that we can ready our athletes and coaches in the best situation to challenge for medals at the highest level in the world.
“We want to make sure that they can give their 100% so they can compete and contribute their best performance to the country and hopefully we can get that first gold medal for the country,” he said during the NSC Buka Puasa event held last night.
Rashid was appointed as the director-general of the NSC on November 1, succeeding Datuk Ahmad Shapawi Ismail who retired on September 28 last year.
He was due to retire on April 1, but yesterday Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh announced that the 60-year-old was given a one-year extension to continue helming the NSC until April 2025.
Rashid said his goal in the next 12 months is to amend the NC of Malaysia Act 1971 so that its provisions are more current to today’s sporting landscape.
He said that there had been efforts to amend the act before, but they were not completed, so he wants to relook at making changes as the act is now old and he wants it to be more topical.
He added that he will also be looking to amend internal standard operation procedures to further facilitate the channelling of funding to national sports associations (NSA) for the implementation of development programmes including those involved in the Podium Programme, and national backup squads.
“There will be an agreement between the NSAs and the NSC that funding received by the associations can be audited by us.
“We will also ask the associations to open a separate bank account to receive funds from the NSC so it will facilitate the monitoring of the funding that is given from the NSC to the NSA,” Rashid added. – April 6, 2024