OVER 4,000 SPORTS ASSOCIATIONS, CLUBS INACTIVE OR PROBLEMATIC - MORDI

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 5 (Bernama) -- A total of 4,687 sports associations and clubs were recorded as inactive or problematic for the period 2020 to 2025, involving various levels of administration, said Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Mordi Bimol.

He said, based on records and statistics from the Office of the Sports Commissioner (PJS), the figure included 23 national-level sports bodies, 206 state-level, 486 district-level and 3,972 club-level.

According to Mordi, among the issues identified were violations of the constitution of sports bodies and violations of the Sports Development Act 1997 (Act 576).

"The Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS) through PJS encourages the governance of sports bodies to be implemented with integrity by monitoring the registration, level of compliance and activity of sports associations and clubs in line with the provisions under Act 576," he said during the question and answer session at Dewan Rakyat, today.

He was replying to a question by Onn Abu Bakar (PH-Batu Pahat) who wanted to know the number of inactive or problematic sports associations or clubs during that period, as well as the actions and recovery mechanisms by KBS.

In an effort to empower sports bodies, he said that the governance strengthening programme was implemented with a focus on guidance and training to improve management efficiency.

"Among the initiatives implemented were sports body organisation management courses, governance and integrity advocacy strengthening programmes, offender meeting days and public dialogue sessions with sports bodies," he said.

Responding to Onn's supplementary question on the government's steps to re-empower youth associations so that they can once again become a platform for young people's struggle and foster patriotism, Mordi said that the age limit for youth to form associations between 15 and before 30 years old, which was implemented through the Youth Organisations and Youth Development (Amendment) Act 2019 (Act A1602), was an important structural reform.

"Based on the records of the Youth Organisation Registrar's Office as of Jan 31 2026, a total of 8,087 Youth Organisations are registered, with 545,587 members under the age of 30," he said.

He said KBS implemented a focused support approach through organising advocacy programmes including youth meeting trips, Youth Organisation outreach programmes, Youth Collaboration and effective management courses, which also involved the Malaysian Youth Council (MBM) and its affiliates.

Meanwhile, Mordi said 8.7 per cent of NEET (Youth not in education, employment or training) aged 15 to 24 were recorded in 2024, while secondary school dropout rate was 2.55 per cent for the same year, based on data from the Department of Statistics Malaysia.

"This data shows that there is a group of youth who continuously drop out of the education, training and job market systems if early and integrated interventions are not implemented," he said in response to a supplementary question by Datuk Dr Suhaili Abdul Rahman (Labuan) on the role of KBS and youth associations in addressing the issue of NEET youth.

-- BERNAMA