THE BA of Malaysia (BAM) hope the National Sports Council (NSC) will continue to subsidise the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) in Bukit Kiara for two more years.
BAM secretary-general Datuk Kenny Goh said the national body have put in a request to the NSC following a recent internal meeting.
Initially, BAM were to start funding the national training centre on their own starting this year.
Although the funding cuts by the government will not affect the operation cost of ABM, a subsidy would allow BAM to balance out their expenditure.
'We get a grant from the NSC to be paid out to our players every year, but due to the recent funding cuts, BAM will top up the remaining balance.
"Now the operation cost of ABM will not be affected by this, but we are hoping the NSC would continue to subsidise the national training centre for two more years.
"We had an internal meeting recently and have put in a request. Hopefully, we will hear something favourably soon," Kenny told Timesport yesterday.
It is understood that the overhead cost to run ABM is approximately RM5 million a year.
Last week, the NSC cut 144 national athletes from the podium programme due to budget cuts.
As the government decided to focus on Covid-19 recovery initiatives, the sports industry was only allocated RM289 million in the annual budget.
Due to this, Sports Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu announced in December that the number of full-time athletes will be reduced from 432 to 288 in 2022.