National Football Development Programme director Lim Teong Kim has proposed for the national football team to be dissolved and replaced with the 2017 SEA Games Project Squad, which comprises the country's under 23 (U23) football team.
Lim, who served as coach for the Bayern Munich junior team for 10 years, said the players in Harimau Malaya have reached a saturation point or were no longer interested in playing on the team.
"Is there any problem for the U23 squad to become the national team? No, isn't it? Then what is the problem?
"The players we currently have in the national team have now reached a stage where if you ask them, they may even say they aren't interested to play for the country.
"They are more interested in their football clubs, so why focus on people who no longer want to play for the country?" he told journalists at a football forum at the National Sports Institute, Bukit Jalil tiday.
The U23 team is a feeder squad for the national football team.
Lim is currently coaching the Under 13 (U13) football team under a dedicated programme to create a new breed of footballers.
The team won the U13 Iber Cup last year and have beaten several junior teams of established European clubs.
Lim added that if the U23 team takes over from the national team, their German coach Frank Bernhardt should be retained.
At present, the national football team is being overseen by caretaker coach Ong Kim Swee.
Harimau Malaya lost their coach Dollah Salleh in September last year after he resigned following the team's humiliating 10-0 defeat to the United Arab Emirates in the World Cup 2018 qualifiers.
The team has since failed to recover from its lacklustre performance and its Fifa ranking fell to 171 this month, its worst position since the ranking system commenced in 1992.
Lim said the U23 team should be given the opportunity to gain as much experience as possible.
"Give the opportunity to young players who want to play, who want to go after the ball, are willing to fight, and have the will to improve the country's football.
"If we do not give chances to the young players now, then when?" he said, adding that the current national team is not able to further develop football in the country.
