Foreign coach not necessary, says Khairy Jamaluddin

There is no need to engage a foreign coach solely to raise the performance of the national football squad, said Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

He said should a foreign coach be enlisted to form a strong football team, it would not guarantee a change in the game of the national squad.

He said improvement in the performance of the country's game could be seen if the existing football team retired and was replaced with new young players.

"Their game (present team) is lacklustre. We will wait for them to retire to rebuild a new team from among Harimau Muda (national Under-23 players,' he told reporters here today.

Yesterday, Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) president Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah said a review had to be carried out on whether to continue using a local coach to handle the national squad or to revert to getting foreign expertise after the performance of Malaysia continued to stagnate.

Tengku Abdullah said only "magic power" could enable local coaches help the national squad to leapfrog to a higher level from the present placing.

In this regard, Khairy said he was not disappointed but was being realistic on Tengku Abdullah's view.

"This is the capability of national football coach and team," he said.