Global Fútbol

LaLiga sealed an agreement with Malaysian football club Hijau Kuning FC, Kedah Darul Aman, in Madrid with to support the development of professional football in Malaysia by creating a solid grassroots football structure. These two organizations will work to develop and professionalize this Malaysian club's youth academy.

Thanks to this partnership, LaLiga and its clubs will share their expertise and experience with the Malaysian club. In the first phase, three LaLiga teams whose youth academies are international reference points will participate: Atlético de Madrid, RCD Espanyol de Barcelona and CD Leganés will work with Hijau Kuning FC in different areas of the project. Coaches from the local club will travel to Spain to work with the teams involved in this apprenticeship.

The agreement runs for two years until July 2024. It will be divided into three parts: A consultancy, designing of adapted youth academy methodology and philosophy which the club will develop with the support of LaLiga's experts. A second phase will include support for the development of the plan designed and training of coaches and technical staff in the methodology and finally, third phase of consolidation of what has been implemented. 

“Spanish grassroots football and in particular the youth academies of LaLiga clubs have enormous prestige outside Spain. The structures are very well established and have been producing top players consistently for decades. Therefore, the involvement of the clubs is essential in this type of project, and they also find it to be an interesting way to strengthen their internationalization,” stated Adrián Prol, LaLiga delegate in Malaysia. 

“HKFC is really proud to have sign an agreement with Laliga that will help our club growing in the aspect of coaching, technical management and improving our grassroot program. HKFC believed that LaLiga has the capability to booster HKFC program within this two year of agreement and will help Kedah grassroot program including coaching program with their methodology, structure and knowledge in modern football. This partnership is just the beginning of the new era in grassroot football in Kedah and HKFC really hope that all grassroot organization in Kedah and Malaysia will grab this opportunity to work with us in developing and nurturing the young talent for the improvement of Kedah and Malaysia football in the future.”, said Mr. Muhammad Talhah bin Zainol, President of Hijau Kuning FC. 

With this agreement, LaLiga continues its strategy to support the development of professional football industry through grassroots football not just in Malaysia but also in Asia such as in Singapore, Japan and long-term educational projects such as an agreement with the Chinese Ministry of Education to teach football in schools. includes the permanent LaLiga Academy and LaLiga Football Schools projects in countries such as India, Indonesia and Vietnam.

“LaLiga as an organization has extensive experience in setting up academies and international sporting projects, more than 550 since 2015, in which more than 200,000 male and female players have been trained. As a result, more and more clubs and federations in other countries are finding our support useful for the development of their grassroots and youth game, and they are backing it to boost local professional football,” said Juan Florit, LaLiga Football Projects Manager.