PETALING JAYA − An independent investigation body has begun conducting a post-mortem on the national team’s poor performance at last month’s Asean Football Federation (AFF) Cup 2020 in Singapore.
The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) said in a statement that the body − chaired by former Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Dell Akbar Khan − met for the first time at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya yesterday.
“Among the main topics discussed at the meeting was the body’s terms of reference in collecting findings and evaluating team performance reports prepared by the national team’s panel of coaches and management,” said FAM.
The other members who attended the meeting were Asian Football Confederation secretary-general Datuk Alex Soosay, National Sports Institute chief executive officer Ahmad Faedzal Md Ramli and new FAM technical director Scott O’Donnell.
Also present at the meeting were former AFC coaching instructor Ganasegaran Suberamaniam, former Harimau Malaya skipper Shukor Adan as well as National Sports Council communications director Ahmad Khawari Mohd Isa, who is also the former Sportswriters Association of Malaysia president.
On January 7, FAM president Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin announced the appointment of Dell, who is also the former FAM secretary-general, as chairman of the independent investigation body.
Malaysia failed to reach the semi-finals in Singapore after ending the Group B campaign in third place. They began the campaign with two wins (3-1 against Cambodia and 4-0 against Laos) before losing 3-0 to Vietnam and 4-1 to Indonesia, thus failing to achieve FAM’s target of qualifying for the final.
Harimau Malaya head coach Tan Cheng Hoe resigned on January 3 − taking full responsibility for the team’s lacklustre performance. – Bernama, January 13, 2022
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