Govt funds para athletes, not council, Yeoh clarifies

BUDGET 2025 | The government not funding the Paralympics Council of Malaysia does not mean that para-athletes do not get government funding, Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh clarified today.

She said the public should make a distinction between councils, associations and athletes.

“The government gives funds to para-sports through our two agencies - State Youth and Sport Departments and the National Sports Council. We fund our para-athletes’ training directly.

“Do not mistake not funding (sports) council or association as abandoning the athletes,” she said in a post on X today.

Another example Yeoh gave of government funding athletes, not sports bodies, was how the Harimau Malaya football team received funds for training, but not the Football Association of Malaysia.

She was responding to public backlash after she said that the government would not be giving funds to the Paralympics Council.

Instead, she said the council needed to source for its own funds.

“If the Paralympics Council wants to carry out any paralympic athlete development, they must find their own funds and not rely on the government to give them money.

“The government also does not give any money to the Olympic Council of Malaysia for athlete development,” she was quoted as saying by Bernama.

In that same article, she said that Budget 2025 does allocate funds for para-athlete development, just that it would not be channelled to the Paralympics Council.

Critics had interpreted Yeoh’s remarks about Paralympic Council funding as the government not giving funds to para-athletes.

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