PETALING JAYA: A video showing a coach of a volleyball team slapping one of his players has gone viral on social media.
Sinar Harian reported that the incident is believed to have happened during the Under-14 Youth Volleyball Championship B-14 2022 in the girls category on Dec 16, 2022.
The third place match involved the Melaka team taking on Johor at a school in Johor.
In the video, which was streamed live on Facebook, a Melaka coach could be seen slapping two of his players during a break after they had lost points for the team.
Higher Education Ministry sports section senior principal assistant secretary Datuk Dr Pekan Ramli told Sinar Harian that the coach's actions were excessive.
"This is something that should not have happened, especially at a school level sports event.
"Physically punishing players in front of their peers will have an extremely negative impact on them. This is not our culture," he was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh, in a post on Twitter Sunday (Jan 1), said, "This is wrong. Spoken to (Education Minister) @FadhlinaSiddiq and we are both getting more information on this incident."
Former youth and sports minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu also took note of the incident in a series of tweets Sunday.
"No space in sport or life for this abusive behaviour. Education, awareness and effective supervision is important to ensure mutual respect between athletes, coaches and administrators," he said in his tweet.
He also said that too many similar incidents had been reported and if not dealt with seriously, would continue to go on.
Ahmad Faizal also urged Yeoh to continue working towards the creation of a Safe Sports Act for Malaysia.
