KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian football's lack of focus on age group tournaments needs to be addressed as the national team failed to qualify for the 2025 China Under-20 Asian Cup yet again.
The Young Tigers finished a dismal fourth in Group E with one win, two draws and one loss in Dushanbe last week. They beat Oman (2-1), drew with North Korea (0-0) and Sri Lanka (1-1), and lost to hosts Tajikistan (1-0).
Malaysia's best achievement in recent times in the Under-20 Asian Cup was reaching the quarter-finals in 2004 in Kuala Lumpur.
Since then, the team managed only two group stage appearances in 2006, New Delhi and 2018, Indonesia in the last nine editions. Malaysia qualified for the 2020 Uzbekistan edition but it was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It's an appalling record for the FA of Malaysia (FAM) which has been running an Under-19 competition, the Youth Cup since 2008.
Football critic Dr Zulakbal Abdul Karim said there were several factors at play for the national team's failure.
"We need to see where the players for the national Under-20 come from... it's the Youth Cup. The competition started in April with 18 teams separated into two groups and will end in November," said the Asian Football Confederation Professional Coaching Diploma holder.
"What were the players doing from January to April and after November? Which league in the world just runs for nine months?
"We are seeing the result from an uncompetitive competition... the league is too short for players to improve. We are running a league which doesn't have an impact on Malaysian football or the national team.
"The majority of the national Under-19 team are from Johor Darul Ta'zim, Selangor and Mokhtar Dahari Academy. Probably the players from these teams are in their comfort zone because they earn more than the other teams."
Despite the failure, Zulakbal believes that with proper planning, Malaysia can qualify for the Under-20 Asian Cup and from it to the Under-20 World Cup.
"The Under-20 Asian Cup is a top level competition for the best 16 teams in the region. We have the quality to be a regular at this level and it's crucial for us to be a regular so that we can have a strong national senior team," said the Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris Sports Science associate professor.
"We need to expose our national Under-20 players to international standards. The current team started well after they beat Oman but they ended up with draws to North Korea and a loss to Tajikistan and a draw with Sri Lanka, this shows that the team lacked mental strength.
"The team lacked experience at the international level and having a psychologist could have helped them. I think there should be an Under-20 player quota for clubs in the Super League.
"It's a short term solution to mature the players in the senior level Super League. Every team must field an Under-20 player during matches and he can be only substituted by another Under-20 player.
"I believe that we are not far away from the quality needed to play at the Under-20 Asian Cup. We are capable of being a top-16 nation at this level if we plan well and it's achievable in two years."