OCM appeals to govt to provide adequate funding

KUALA LUMPUR: The Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) is seeking the government's help to provide a reasonable allocation to it ahead of three major multi sports events next year.

Its president Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria said these were the SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam, Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom and Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

"So we are appealing to the government to provide enough resources and if there's a possibility of giving incentives to the private sector to come in to assist the government, we will basically welcome that," he told a press conference after attending the 199th OCM meeting at Wisma OCM here today.

He said that there is also a possibility of downsizing in terms of the preparation and funding for the athletes if there were insufficient funds for the nation's sports development.

He added that NSAs (National Sports Associations) feared that athletes in the Podium Programme, which prepares medal prospects for major international meets, may dropout if funding posed a serious problem.

The 199th OCM Executive Council Meeting was attended by 50 of its members along with representatives from National Sports Council (MSN) , Ministry of Youth and Sport (KBS), National Sports Institute (ISN), Ministry of Education (MOE), the Sports Commissioner's Office and national athletes.

-- BERNAMA