Malaysia uses Vietnam women's football to warn against rampant naturalization policy

Journalist Ajitpal Singh, sports editor of the New Straits Times, warned that if Malaysian football and other sports indulge in a policy of mass naturalisation and disregard for origins, it will lead to a 'devastating hangover'.

Vietnam women's team attending World Cup does not need naturalized players

In the article: "Success from borrowing will feel good at first, but the hangover will be devastating", Ajitpal Singh pointed out the worries for Malaysian football in particular and the country's sports in general, when there are currently some other sports such as basketball preparing to naturalize up to 3 foreign-born athletes to prepare to compete at the 33rd SEA Games in December in Thailand.

Vietnamese women's football succeeds and participates in World Cup without naturalized player policy

Photo: Minh Hoang

"It is easy to be satisfied with immediate success when naturalized players and athletes bring immediate results. The current Malaysian men's football team is an example, they own a team of naturalized players regardless of origin and have caused a lot of controversy, but legally valid in terms of documents. Thanks to that, they are likely to qualify for the Asian Cup finals for the second consecutive time in 2027.

This group of naturalized players is the dream of a continental club, they contributed to "destroying" the Vietnam team with a score of 4-0 in the match on June 10. This has caused many other sports to follow the trend of massive naturalization to achieve results. This leads to the risk of suffocating domestic sports, and local athletes are gradually no longer focused on training. Because when there is a shortage of any position, just naturalize and use them," Ajitpal Singh expressed.

Ajitpal Singh pointed out this danger, which is the situation of the Malaysian U.20 women's team recently when there were many naturalized players, and a large investment, but the results were nothing new, even worse. The Malaysian U.20 women's team lost to Iran 0-3, was humiliated by Japan with a terrible score of 0-16, and only won 2-0 against Guam - an island with less than 200,000 people.

"Remember, the Vietnamese women's team qualified for the World Cup (2023) thanks to a reasonable training policy and the use of local players, without any naturalized players," Ajitpal Singh emphasized, adding: "Malaysian men's football previously also qualified for the Asian Cup (2023) thanks to their strength without having many naturalized foreign players. Players of Malaysian origin such as Brendan Gan and Dion Cools, the trust of Matthew Davies, there is cultural exchange and has improved quality across the field. Malaysian sports have previously had naturalized athletes in diving, athletics and table tennis."

The issue of naturalized Malaysian players of unclear origin has caused a lot of controversy and has not yet ended.

Photo: Ngoc Linh

"This is not new, Qatar football has also done the same and succeeded with 2 Asian Cup championships in 2019 and 2023. Indonesian football is also reviving thanks to naturalized players with Dutch roots and is competing for a place in the 2026 World Cup. Philippine basketball is thriving thanks to players of American origin.

However, these countries use naturalization policies as only a temporary solution. Overall, they are still building a foundation for developing their training system and domestic tournaments to upgrade native talents.

Full naturalization, with just a passport, may be a loan to get started. But if domestic investment is left unchecked, things will spiral into a devastating frenzy. The current Malaysian Super League is a case in point, with clubs complaining year after year of financial difficulties despite a fairly good structure.

That is also when naturalized athletes and players' contracts expire and their ability to contribute is exhausted, everything will leave an immense void," Ajitpal Singh affirmed.

Ajitpal Singh also said that the Malaysian Youth and Sports Ministry does not restrict players and athletes from naturalizing as long as they meet the conditions. But Minister Hannah Yeoh was straightforward: naturalization must not harm the development of domestic talent.

Can Malaysian sports avoid the current naturalization spiral, following the success of the country's football team?

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/malaysia-dung-bong-da-nu-viet-nam-de-canh-bao-chinh-sach-nhap-tich-tran-lan-185250812114757412.htm