I READ with great interest the Football Association of Ma-laysia’s plan to recruit former Liverpool player Ian Rush to train our players.

FAM is also sending national coach B. Sathianathan for a three-week stint with Manchester United where he will shadow its assistant manager, Carlos Quieroz.

I am not convinced that this approach will raise the standard of Malaysian football.

I am a Manchester United fan but I am not sure that the English Premier League is the best in the world. It is perhaps more widely exposed and commercially packaged.

Manchester United is successful because it is a rich club that can buy good players.

All it and other clubs in Europe do is scout around for talented players to make up their teams.

I am sure this aspect cannot be followed by FAM. Even the English national squad finds it difficult to find players to represent the country.

The best option for us is to look at the African Nations Cup 2008. These so-called poor countries produce top players, such as Didier Drogba of the Ivory Coast.

It would make more sense to study how Ghana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Egypt produce fantastic squads with less money than we spend on the sport. We should learn how Ghana produced Junior Ago-go, Michael Essien and Sulley Muntari, Egypt its Mohamed Zidan and Cameroon its Stephane Mbia.

How about sending FAM deputy president Khairy Jamaluddin and Sathianathan to Ghana for a three-month stint and develop a plan to revive Malaysian football?

M.Z.A., Kuala Lumpur

Source: NST – February 11, 2008