KUALA LUMPUR – Former Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) president Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim’s wish to take charge of the Harimau Malaya squad must be studied in detail.
FAM president Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin said in a statement today that the national football governing body had certain procedures and meetings before making any decisions or rulings.
However, Hamidin said FAM had taken note of the proposal put forward by Tunku Ismail, who is also the owner of Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT), regarding the national team recently.
On Monday, Tunku Ismail, through a series of stories on Instagram, offered to take charge of the Harimau Malaya squad to propel the national football team to long-term success.
The Tunku Mahkota Johor (TMJ) also said that he would provide the team with the best training facilities and coaches.
Meanwhile, in the same statement, Hamidin instructed that a discussion be held regarding the hotly-debated issue of naturalised players.
“I have instructed the FAM secretariat to have this issue jointly discussed by the FAM Naturalisation Programme Committee, the FAM Technical and Development Committee and FAM technical director Datuk Ong Kim Swee to study the effectiveness of the naturalised player programme,” he said.
In the meantime, Hamidin said the FAM National Team Management Committee would wait for the full post-mortem report of the Harimau Malaya’s performance throughout the second round of the 2022 World Cup/2023 Asian Cup Qualifying campaign in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which ended on Wednesday.
He said the same committee also expects to receive a report on the preliminary preparation for the national team ahead of the third round of the 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers, which are scheduled to begin next February, for discussion and detailed study at the committee meeting.
“All matters to be discussed at the committee meeting will then be tabled at the FAM Executive Committee meeting for confirmation,” said Hamidin.
