The Malaysia government, enthusiastic about the “Kim Pang Gon Magic,” has announced a 5 million ringgit ($1.4 billion) grant to help develop soccer in the country.
“Although we didn’t qualify for the knockout stages, the feeling of drawing 3-3 with Korea is like winning the World Cup,” said Malaysian Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeo on social media after the ‘FIFA 130th-ranked’ Malaysia A team, led by Kim Pang Gon, drew 3-3 with ‘FIFA 23rd-ranked’ South Korea in the final group match of the Qatar Asian Cup on January 26.
Ahead of the first meeting between the two sides in 35 years, since January 5, 1989
Kim said in his pre-match press conference, “We are ready to exploit Korea’s weaknesses. Why do you think we won’t win,” Kim said in a pre-match press conference, and the underdogs proved it with a gritty performance.
After the “underdog rebellion,” in which the team scored three goals to earn a point against the mighty South Koreans 39 years after their 1-0 World Cup qualifying victory in Mexico on March 10, 1985, Kim made headlines with his humble interview and support for his countrymen. “It was a good result that we didn’t expect,” 온라인카지노 Kim said. It was hard to motivate the team when there was no hope, but the fact that we decided to challenge the World Cup Round of 16 team without regret led to a good result. The players tried their best to get something out of this match and prepare for the next World Cup qualifier,” said Kim. “Just playing against a World Cup Round of 16 team in Korea was a great motivation for us.” As the former technical director of the Korean Football Association who led South Korea to the round of 16 at the Qatar World Cup, he also had faith in the team’s performance. “Korea is still strong, the players are still good, and I expect Korea to reach the final and win,” he said encouragingly.
After Malaysia’s victory, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced that the government would provide RM5 million to the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) for the national team. “This is in recognition of the strong fighting spirit shown by the Malaysian national football team against South Korea,” he said.
On the 27th, Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh clarified what the money would be used for.
“The grant cannot be used for FAM operating expenses. It can only be used for football development,” she said. “The Ministry of Finance will closely monitor this,” he said, adding, “The Malaysia A team and the teams under our jurisdiction need a lot of money to get better training opportunities and we want them to grow to the highest level, so they need funding and the government will support them.” “We have seen a lot of progress in the last two years under Kim Pang Gon and we can see that FAM president Datuk Haminin is doing a lot of work to develop the team with the help of grants, but compared to Jordan, Bahrain and South Korea, Malaysia has received the least amount of funding,” he said. “Funding is hard to come by, so the government wants to help a little bit,” he said, explaining the reason for the budgetary support.
“Previously, FAM received a small grant from the Ministry of Finance and last year we did not. We know that the Malaysian national soccer team has the talent to move forward, which is why the government has decided to provide the grant,” she reiterated.
Hannah Yeoh also urged the media and fans to be patient with the development of the players,
Rather than calling for a sudden change of coaching staff and management, even when the national team is not performing well in the immediate tournament. Immediately after the 0-1 loss to Bahrain in the first match of the Asian Cup Group E and the 0-4 defeat to Jordan in the second match, there was a lot of criticism against Kim in Malaysia. As always, merit trumps all criticism and prejudice. After the 3-3 draw against South Korea, 실시간 바카라사이트 the criticism was quickly put to rest. “Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. What I want to say to the media and fans is that we shouldn’t always demand changes in coaches and management whenever we lose. Improvement takes time,” he said. “We have to understand the ecosystem they are in and the challenges they face. We can’t solve everything in a month.”