There are few sights in world football as spectacular as a full house at Kuala Lumpur’s Bukit Jalil National Stadium. With trademark Southeast Asian colour and noise, the cavernous 87,500 capacity stadium in the Malaysian capital has hosted countless memorable occasions. The sheer volume of support underscores just how much of an appetite there is for football in Malaysia. Harnessing that potential is the aim for the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), and FIFA’s Football for Schools (F4S) programme fits perfectly into the federation’s long-term expansion goal. The primary goal of Football for Schools is to ensure football is more accessible to both boys and girls by incorporating football activities into the education system. With this overarching goal in mind, FAM and visiting FIFA officials hosted a large Football for Schools festival seeking to expand the existing footprint of the programme. Held over three days and concluding on Saturday 3 August, the festival in Penang proved to be highly successful with over 200 children in attendance. The event also proved an important opportunity for around 20 Physical Education teachers to reinforce their skills learnt in 2023.

Working in conjunction with the Malaysian Ministry of Education and football’s world governing body, FAM aim to see football integrated into 237 further schools. "With F4S football at the national primary school level, we will see more children getting involved in football, thereby attracting their interest to play football, regardless of whether it is boys or girls,” FAM Deputy President, Dato' S. Sivasundaram said during the launch ceremony. “Not only that, through the initiative, it will focus on both football, life skills and positive attributes which is important in building good personality traits. FIFA together with FAM are also committed to implementing football courses for teaching staff in schools.” Also present at the event launch were Minister of Education, YB Fadhlina Sidek; FIFA Technical Consultant, Alberto Giacomini; FIFA Football for Schools Manager, Niko Nhouvannasak; FAM Vice President Dato’ S Sivasundaram; FAM General Secretary, Datuk Noor Azman bin Hj Rahman and Director-General of Education Malaysia, Azman Adnan.

This latest initiative further builds the Football for Schools programme upon the strong platform established in 2023 which included a wide-scale distribution of balls to schools across the country. FAM’s focus for F4S is also on an increase in female participation, 50% of participating teachers are women, 50% participating students are girls, a goal that is in line with the objectives of the FIFA Women’s Football Campaign. “FAM is also committed to ensure that the women’s football continues to be strengthened at the grassroots level through the organisation of the FIFA Women’s Football Campaign at 17 venues all across Malaysia,” said Dato’ Sivasundaram. “It is with great hopes that we will get to witness more girls and women involving themselves in football through this campaign.” The successful hosting of the festival and the expanded roll-out of the programme continues a strong year for football development in Malaysia. Just two months ago ground was broken at Malaysia’s new FIFA Forward-funded National Training Centre; a facility that FIFA President Gianni Infantino stated will serve as “a beacon for the beautiful game”. Such wide-ranging investment in building tomorrow’s stars suggests a bright future for the burgeoning game in Malaysia.