Dream of Negri women’s football club closer to reality

Tuanku Ampuan Durah Tunku Besar Burhanuddin officiating at the match kick-off.

WHILE many of her peers are quite content pottering about the garden, Tunku Ellie Badariah Tunku Ahmad – one of the pioneers of Malaysian women’s football – shows no signs of slowing down and is most animated when talking about the football club she plans to set up for Negri Sembilan-born girls.

The sprightly 76-year old, whose list of sporting credentials include being elected the Asian Ladies Football Confederation assistant general secretary in 1974 and playing a pivotal role in the establishment of the Negri Sembilan Women’s Football Association (NSWFA) when she was just a schoolgirl of 15, is all fired up when the conversation turns to football.