Raising our game
Concrete plan for World Cup dreams
11 Jul 2006

KUALA LUMPUR: Will Malaysia ever play in football's World Cup Finals? World Cup 2006 rekindled the hopes of many Malaysians that one day the country will make it to world-class tournaments.

At present, the country excels in only a handful of sports: badminton, squash and bowling among them.

If an ambitious plan by the Government bears fruit, Malaysian athletes may yet grace the world stage in football and other events.

The Government has given notice that it is going ahead with a plan to build a sports training centre in London.

The estimated cost of the centre is RM490 million. But this will be no ordinary centre.

It will be a place where our athletes are put through the grind and where they get to hone their skills playing against world-class teams. They will also learn at the feet of top coaches.

The plan is to turn them into truly professional athletes.

Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Azalina Othman said in Parliament yesterday that it had identified the Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre in Brickendonbury, England, as the site for the future high performance sports training centre.

In a written reply to a question from the DAP MP for Ipoh Timur, Lim Kit Siang, she said the sports complex would act as a short-term training centre and a "forward base" for national athletes who would compete in European tournaments.

She said apart from helping Malaysian athletes acclimatise to the weather, it would enable sports officials to have access to the expertise and technology of countries more advanced in sports.

"The Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre was chosen not only because it is in London, which is the gateway to other European countries, but also because it is located on government-owned land," she said.

She added that the centre would only be 24km from the 2012 London Olympics Sports Village.

Lim wanted to know if the Government would cancel its plans to build the sports training centre and use the money in a more productive way.

Azalina told the New Straits Times later that junior sports teams - including the football, squash and badminton teams - would train at this centre.

"Here, they will compete and learn sports skills in a more professional manner.

"It is easier to get top coaches from Europe to train our athletes in London than to get them to come to Malaysia."

She said the teams would get to play against top professional teams and reserve teams of top clubs in London.

"It will help build more resilient athletes who may be able to compete in a world setting in a better way."

Meanwhile, the Football Association of Malaysia is undertaking several long-term programmes to put the Malaysian team on the world map.

Work is under way to improve the Under-21 and Under-20 squads for the long term.

The Under-21 squad, which is handled by B. Sathianathan, is currently in South Africa for a three-match tour, while K. Rajagopal's Under-20 squad is in Brazil for a taste of samba in the Copa BHD Futebol Junior tournament.

The Under-20 squad has qualified for the final round of the Asian Youth Cup in Kolkata, India. The FAM also has development programmes at the grassroots - Tunas Bolasepak for the Under-12 age-group and Tunas Cemerlang for the Under-15 age group.

Complemented by the efforts of FAM, the experiment by the Sports Ministry may yet help a Malaysian team make it to the World Cup.

Tax revenue to hit RM65b

The Government should have no problem coming out with the money to finance projects under the 9th Malaysia Plan (9MP) going by the steady increase in revenue collection by the Inland Revenue Board (IRB).

According to IRB chief executive Tan Sri Zainol Abidin Rashid, tax collections for 2006 should be anywhere between RM60bil and RM65bil.

"We are on target to hit the higher figure for 2006 judging by our performance during the first half of this year," he told a group of editors at a luncheon here yesterday.

Zainol said IRB collections had been growing at double digits in recent years.

He attributed this to a stable Malaysian economy and improved efficiency on the part of the IRB.

Last year, the IRB collected RM56.8bil in tax receipts, compared with around RM48bil in 2004.

Zainol said IRB collections accounted for about 45% of federal government revenue.

"Whoever said that the Government has no money to spend for the 9MP is either ignorant or not telling the truth. Tax revenue for the Government has been growing at a healthy level in recent years," he said.

In addition to higher IRB collection, the Government is also benefiting from higher royalties and dividends from Petronas due to high oil prices.

The Government has allocated RM200bil for development projects under the 9MP, excluding another RM20bil which would be financed by the private sector under the Private Finance Initiative programme. - The Star -

Our money :'(
Please use it to save the needy children and the animals... :'(

and i thought changing the sports minister would do some good, but hey, they are just that dumb aren't they?