Johor crown prince launches 'educate people through football' project

PETALING JAYA - Johor crown prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim has launched a nationwide project to educate Malaysians through football.

"Today, I would like to officially announce to Johor Darul Ta'zim (JDT) fans around the world that I will be launching a new project entitled 'Educating people through football', which will be implemented from our academy, across Johor and Malaysia," said Tunku Ismail on the Johor Southern Tigers' Facebook page Friday.

He said the aim of the project is to educate youths through football with the slogan "academics come before football".

"The purpose of this is to make them better individuals in life as well as footballers or other professions," said Tunku Ismail.

He added that JDT would take the initiative in order to provide youths with "the best education".

"Knowledge has no boundaries and exposure is the best experience," said Tunku Ismail.

Tunku Ismail also congratulated Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Khaled Nordin and the state government for their role in education and for their contributions towards the people of Johor.

Meanwhile, Tunku Ismail also wrote about JDT's progress in being able to send its players and officials to Europe and Japan without any cost to the club apart from the price of the flight tickets.

He announced that through its sports ministry, the Japanese government had come up with a budget to "cater for JDT players and officials to go and learn everything regarding football projects in Japan".

Tunku Ismail added that the club will also be able to send players and officials to Spain, Germany, and France.

"I'm blessed to know all these great people from these countries and be able to foster this relationship with their respective clubs," he said.

Last year, JDT become the first Malaysian team to win the AFC Cup.

Earlier, Tunku Ismail had said that he felt that a major stumbling block in the growth of the sports in Malaysia is education - or the lack of it.

"Education in this country has to change first. It is about upbringing. If we have a professionally-run academy that implements professionalism, then you will have a different product. We have not had the foundation and suddenly you want to send the boys abroad," he said.