Japan team is one of the Asian representatives with the best football performance , says football experts

SHAH ALAM - The Japan team is one of the Asian representatives with the best football performances because they were the first to begin the football development process in 1998.

When they set their minds to start a mission, they will all try to achieve it for their country because, for them, football is their culture.

FAM Head of Coaching Lim Kim Chon said the Japanese team had a great visionary president, Saburo Kawabuchi, whose overhaul made Japan's football squad one of the greatest in Asia.

He stated that when Japan qualified for the 1998 World Cup in France, they sent 40 people to study football development abroad.

"Japan sent 40 people that were divided into five groups to study in several stadiums to study what is wrong with Japanese football."

"When they are coming back to their homeland, they start from the basics again; it’s all about the fundamentals of football," he said at The Footy Forum: Enter The Knockout Stages by Sinar Daily.

Meanwhile, former FA Malaysia Assistant General Secretary Abang Zulkarnaun Abang Abdurahman said that Malaysia needs skills to determine if it wants to enter the World Cup.

"Out of 35 million people in Malaysia, we just need 25 to 30 to present our country to Malaysia, yet we cannot find them, so what we need to do is develop the organizations, coaches, and players," he said.

He also added that during Pesta Bola Merdeka in 1958, Malaysia had beaten Japan and Korea.

The Footy Forum is an online football forum hosted by Rizal Hashim and was broadcast live through the official Facebook of Sinar Daily.