Academies improving, grassroot football bound to change..

In Europe, footballing academies are important in the growth of their football. The La Masia Academy, Ajax Training School and English Clubs like Arsenal and Manchester United have their own academies to breed their own footballers.

From Manchester, players like Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Phil Neville and Paul Scholes come from the academy and they have carved out a name for themselves. These players were part of the successful Champions League campaign in 1999.

Barcelona, one of the most domineering forces in Europe have taken graduates from the La Masia academy. The players that have been successful in the academy are Frances Fabregas, Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets, Pedro Rodriguez and the mercurial Lionel Messi.

These players have brought Barcelona to great heights and for the past 3 seasons, Barcelona have been an Indomitable force and they likes of Messi, Iniesta and Xavi have made it work for the team from Catalonia.

Academies all over Europe have produced prodigious talents and countries like England, France, Spain, Russia and Netherlands are savoring the successes of their academies.Being able to flush out so much talents, now clubs are beginning to open academies around the globe and Asia has benefited from this.

Clubs like Liverpool. Cardiff City, Manchester United and Arsenal have penetrated into the Asian market and have opened up many academies in Asian countries. Japan, South Korea and Thailand have generated some many talents not just from these academies but also from academies based in the country itself.

In South East Asia, academies are beginning to crop up but the talent pool is yet to be found. In the past, Malaysia had so many academies being established but the National team players predominantly come from the Bukit Jalil Sports School.

Players like Norhsharul Idlan Talaha, Mohd Muslim Ahmad and Irfan Fazail come from the noted sports school in Kuala Lumpur. Academies like Kiddo Kickers, Japanese Football Academy and Kuala Lumpur Football academy have come up with condusive plans to breed players. However, most Malaysian parents want their kids to excel academically and the talented players will see their development being curtailed in the academies itself.

However, victory of the AFF Suzuki Cup in 2010, changed the scene and many children realise that football can become a source of passion and also income. Thus, many kids have enrolled themselves in private academies.

The academies in Malaysia may not be as adequate as their counterparts in Europe but the level of training and intensity from these academies are laudable. Technique, dietary regime, mental assessment and physical strength have changed as the youngsters are trained to sustain in the rigours of football and understand the whole concept of the 'world's most beautiful game'.

Their food intake, physical training and daytime schedules are being monitored by the academy coaches and these implementation can be seen in academies in Perak, Kuala Lumpur and Kelantan.However, the state of pitches for training can be improved as many of these academies rent fields to conduct their trainings.

However, the Malaysian government have realised the importance of football academies. The Youth and Sports Ministry will set up several national football academies to educate and train children in the sport and create quality players for the country, Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek said.

He said the ministry's Football Development Committee was now identifying sites for the project, which he said would be modelled after the football academies of European clubs which had successfully created a continuous stream of quality players generations after generations.

"Their players are able to play world-standard football at a young age because of a holistic development programmes.

"In our case, we are still struggling to expose our players at the international level," Ahmad Shabery told. 

Ahmad Shabery said the academies would need a large area, consisting of football fields and infrastructure to train children from as young as eight.

"We lack infrastructure to teach football to our children. In fact, none of our existing football facilities for children are of international standard," he said.

Those days, academies were meant for leisure purposes. However, now they mean business as they send out their youths to competitions and the age category competition scene in Malaysia is improving every year.

Sports schools have dominated the age group scene but things will change soon as academies are beginning to make their presence felt. The case of 'pooching' players from academies to sport schools still do exist but it will end soon as some academies have applied stringent measures on their products.

With the Malaysian football scene beginning to heat up, thanks to publicity created by Safee Sali and Safiq Rahim, things are bound to change for Malaysian football. Academies are beginning to take up the challenge of breeding the next 'Safee' or 'Safiq' and they are going great lengths to make it happen.