KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 — The right to host the Malaysia Games (Sukma), a competition for athletes under 21 years old is decided jointly in the Sukma Supreme Committee Meeting comprising representatives of all 14 states.
The National Sports Council (MSN) in a statement today said the usual approach was rotation by zone and each state was given the opportunity to host the games.
According to MSN, the Sukma games host rotation system by zone was first implemented in 2002 in Sabah.
The zone system is divided into five, namely, the Northern Zone involving Kedah, Perlis and Penang; Southern Zone (Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, Johor); East Zone 1 (Pahang, Terengganu, Kelantan); Eastern Zone 2 (Sabah, Sarawak) and Western Zone (Perak, Selangor, Federal Territory).
“According to the host rotation system, Kelantan was supposed to host in 2012, but was given to Pahang as Kelantan was not ready in terms of sports facilities and infrastructure that needed to be completed by the state government,” according to the statement.
Meanwhile, MSN explained that the Sukma Supreme Committee Meeting in May 2015 had chosen Perak as the host for the 2018 edition and Johor (2020) and asked Kelantan to consider hosting 2022 Sukma.
However, the same committee meeting in March 2019 approved the host rotation proposal between the state government and MSN, which decided that MSN will host in 2022 and the Kelantan government for the 2024 edition.
“Following the Covid-19 pandemic, the special meeting of the Sukma Supreme Committee on November 9, 2020, had agreed to the Johor government’s request to postpone the Sukma to 2022,” according to the statement.
The special meeting also decided that MSN will organise the 21st Sukma together with Selangor or the Federal Territory in 2024 while Kelantan will host the Sukma 2026.
However, MSN explained that Johor had applied to the Sukma Supreme Committee to be given the right to organise Sukma 2024 and the meeting in October 2021 approved the application and for MSN to host Sukma 2022.
MSN also added that Kelantan’s right as the host of the 22nd Sukma in 2026 would remain as previously decided.
— Bernama
