Myanmar Targets Sea Games Football Gold Medal

From Farhanah Azmi

YANGON (Myanmar), Sept 27 (Bernama) -- The Myanmar Football Federation (MFF) is targeting winning the football gold medal at the upcoming Myanmar SEA Games scheduled from Dec 11 to 22.

"Based on our preparation and team performance at the last Merdeka Cup we are confident of achieving the gold medal. Football is our favourite sport," said MFF Secretary-General Soe Moe Kyaw at a news briefing for the Malaysian media here Friday.

The 33-member media delegation is led by Sportswriters Association of Malaysia (SAM) president Ahmad Khawari Isa. The delegation also visited the Youth Trainning Centre (YTC) Football Stadium here.

Myanmar's Under-23 team lost to Malaysia's Harimau Muda A (national Under-23) squad 0-2 in the final of the 2013 Merdeka Cup earlier this month.

Soe said the Myanmar team will continue with endurance training under the guidance of South Korean coach Park Sung Wan.

"Although the official SEA Games football team draw has not been done, we hope to be drawn in the same group with Malaysia. If possible, we want to avoid meeting Thailand in the same group.

"We too have to be extra careful with other emerging teams like Vietnam or Laos. We cannot look down on these teams as they too have their own mission," said Soe, who is also the SEA Games football team manager.

He said group matches involving Myanmar will be held in Yangon while the semifinals and final will be at the Nyar Thiri Football Stadium in Nay Pyi Taw.

"Since Nay Pyi Taw is our new administrative centre, the population is not as big as in Yangon. We have more than 6 million people in Yangon and most of them are football fans.

"We will have the group matches here and will provide special transportation to Nay Pyi Taw for the fans if Myanmar enter the semifinals or final," he said.

Travelling by bus or car from Yangon to Nay Pyi Taw takes about six hours.

The Myanmar SEA Games Organising Committee (MYASOC) has announced that the draw for all SEA Games' team events would be done on Oct 24.

On the facilities for the SEA Games football event, Soe noted that the federation had spent US$700,000 (about RM2 million) to upgrade the Youth Training Centre (YTC) football pitch.

The federation has also built another new football stadium with a capacity for 35,000 spectators for the women's football event in Mandalay.

-- BERNAMA

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