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KUALA LUMPUR: The former stars have spoken — unanimously holding the FA of Malaysia (FAM) responsible for the sad state of affairs in Malaysian football.

And their prescription for the ills of Malaysian football is simple: “Let us, the former national footballers, play a more significant role in reviving the fortunes of the game in the country.”

About 70 ex-national players attended a one-of-a-kind “Save Malaysian football” dialogue with Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob at the National Stadium Complex in Bukit Jalil.

Some came from as far as Penang. Even “towkay” Soh Chin Aun, sacked as team manager by the FAM on Sunday, was there to give his two cents’ worth.

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Tags: Datuk Soh Chin Aun, FAM, National team, Serbegeth Singh, Sultan Ahmad Shah

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PETALING JAYA: The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) have made B. Sathianathan and Datuk Soh Chin Aun the scapegoats for the national team’s failings, sacking the duo as coach and manager respectively.

FAM vice-president Datuk Gulzar Mohd Nor has been appointed team manager while the new national coach would be named soon.

These decisions were made at FAM’s executive committee meeting, which was chaired by president Sultan Ahmad Shah, at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya yesterday.

It was, however, not certain on what grounds Sathianathan and Chin Aun were sacked.

Was it for the national team’s 5-0 mauling by the United Arab Emirates in their Asian Cup qualifying match on Jan 21?

Or was it for Sathianathan’s now infamous “the M-League is not football” outburst moments after that defeat?

Or was it for revealing that only three players had passed the fitness test after having had barely five days to prepare for the UAE match?

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Tags: Datuk Soh Chin Aun, National team, Sathianathan

By ERIC SAMUEL

PETALING JAYA: About RM300mil was pumped into the FA of Malaysia (FAM) from 1997-2005 by then sponsors Dunhill.

Despite the huge financial backing, Malaysian football continued to go on a downward spiral, from which it has yet to recover.

Simply put, it was money down the drain.

If FAM could not lift Malaysia’s footballing fortunes with that kind of cash, what hope is there in these days of global credit crunch?

No wonder former national coach Abdul Rahman Ibrahim as well as former internationals Dollah Salleh and K. Gunalan can’t help but see a bleak future ahead for the nation’s number one sport.

“I have been saying the same old thing over and over again for the last 20 years. There must be a concerted and radical change to fight the rot in our football system. Otherwise, we are going to talk about the same thing for the next 20 years,” said Abdul Rahman.

“No one is serious about taking action. There is no point talking about what is right and wrong any more … it is action time. We need to see changes.”

Dollah said that unless there were positive changes in the junior development programmes at the state level, the standard of Malaysian football would remain the same — mediocre.

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Tags: Abdul Rahman Ibrahim, Dollah Salleh, Dunhill, FAM, K. Gunalan, National team, Sultan Ahmad Shah

MALAYSIAN football has come to a serious state where not many people know the names of national players any more, said Saifudin Nasution Ismail (PKR-Machang).

He said this was the case unlike during the golden era of the game.

“It shows how serious the state of our football is. Last time, most of us could remember the names of the players,” said Saifudin, who named a string of former national players, including the late Mokhtar Dahari.

“It’s not about our size. Some of our great national players were small,” he said in his supplementary question on the Youth and Sports Ministry’s move to improve sports associations. 

Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Wee Jeck Seng said it had been the ministry’s responsibility to ensure an improvement in the country’s sporting performance.

Earlier, when replying to a question by Alexander Nanta Linggi (BN-Kapit), Wee said that among the factors that influenced the performance of national athletes was their physical size.

“The differences are obvious when compared with athletes from Korea, Japan, Middle Eastern and Europe.”

Wee also said the ministry had taken steps to improve the performance of national athletes. “These include studies on nutrition as well as the setting up of the National Sports Institute.”

Tags: National Sports Institute, National team