Sports – Sime Darby Football Development Programme – Yayasan Sime Darby Annual Report 2024

Sime Darby Football Development Programme

Nurturing The Football Talent Pool from Roots to Shoots

YSD has been a part of the Sime Darby Football Club’s (SDFC) journey since 2010, when it made its striking debut as champion of the FAM Cup the same year. Having supported SDFC’s pro players to the big leagues, including the Malaysia FA Cup and Malaysia Premier League, this early success led to YSD’s strategic pivot towards nurturing grassroots talent in the sport in 2018, through the Sime Darby Football Development Programme (SDFDP), aiming to cultivate elite football players for national and state teams.

To date, over 331 boys and 132 girls aged 7 to 16 from the Bukit Jelutong and neighbouring areas have participated in this programme, several of whom have gone on to join national and state teams.

The SDFDP is aimed at discovering and nurturing new football talent that can contribute to the nation’s talent pool.

YSD also supported SDFC’s first all-girls and largest football development programme to level the playing field for girls in football. This involved hiring more female coaches and a female programme coordinator, creating not just a safer environment for girl players, but also career opportunities within the sporting community.

With RM1.5 million committed in the current phase of SDFDP, YSD continues to empower an additional 150 girls and 150 boys, providing them access to top tier coaching and international tournament exposure. These initiatives exemplify our belief that sports can transform lives and communities, promote gender equality, and foster the holistic development of young Malaysians.

In YSD’s complementary effort to use sports for social betterment, the Foundation also extended its support to initiatives like the Midnight Football programme. In collaboration with the Global Peace Foundation Malaysia from 2018 to 2020, this initiative targeted 74 at-risk youths from rural Sarawak, employing football as a medium to help them build resilience, character, and leadership skills, for its capacity to influence positive life choices and constructive futures.

YSD’s support for the SDFDP programme include allocations to create a safe and more conducive environment for girls in the sport.

“There are so many women out there that love football as much as men, perhaps even more. I coach not to compete with men, but to inspire a new generation of players and coaches. I am here because I want to give hope, to make girls believe that they can also succeed in football and provide them as much support as I can. I want them to achieve what I couldn’t achieve before, because now, we have a platform – the level of engagement in women’s football is good now, especially on an international level.”