THE Malaysia Deaf Sports Association (MSDeaf) plan to send 37 athletes from five sports for the 24th Deaflympics in Brazil on May 1-15, but lack funding.
So far, they have managed to raise RM243,700 at last month's All-Star Football charity match held by Yakult Malaysia.
Among the footballers who participated in the charity match were Indra Putra Mahayuddin, Zaquan Adha Radzak, Syed Adney Syed Hussein, Azmi Muslim, Nurshamil Abdul Ghani, Razman Roslan, Norshahrul Idlan Talaha and Badhri Radzi.
Japanese legend Masashi Motoyama and his compatriots who played in the M-League: Yuta Suzuki, Yuki Tanigawa, Akira Higashiyama, Brunoi Suzuki and Shuhei Fukai also played.
However, MSDeaf are still unable to fund the national deaf football team for the Deaflympics. Malaysia will instead compete in five sports: badminton, bowling, athletics, karate and mountain biking.
"The preparations and qualification for the Deaflympics started last year through rankings and other competitions as well as training," said MSDeaf president Ong Shin Ruenn.
"While karate and mountain biking are supported by MSDeaf, the other sports are supported by the National Sports Council.
"However, due to the government's budget cuts, we have to source for our own funding. We are not able to send the football team as we do not have the means."
Shin Ruenn said MSDeaf are targeting to win one gold medal in badminton through women's singles Boon Wei Ying.
MSDeaf will utilise the money collected from the charity match for women's sports development, grassroots and for the football team to play in the qualifiers for the 2023 World Championship in South Korea.
Shin Ruenn also disclosed that Malaysia could host the first Asean Deaf Games in November.