KAJANG – Football fans can kiss goodbye to their hopes of Malaysia bidding to host the Asian Cup 2023 qualifiers as the government’s priority is to focus on the National Economic Recovery instead of splashing a big sum on hosting the qualifying tournament.
“I think if a tournament can guarantee an influx of fans or bring returns for sports tourism, we can still consider it.
“I would love to do it (qualifying round), but we have to give priority to the people’s economy. I feel the government is focusing on post-pandemic economic recovery,” The Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu said.
Ahmad Faizal said this when commenting on reports that the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) was keen to bid to be one of the six centralised venues for the 24 teams playing in the qualifiers in June next year.
Recently, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in a statement said the qualifying round would be played at centralised venues based on the single round-robin format.
On a separate matter, Ahmad Faizal urged athletes to quickly report any sexual harassment cases to the authorities, coaches, or their parents.
“Do not keep quiet. These are criminal offences, which we should combat together,” he added.
He was commenting on national diving queen Datuk Pandelela Rinong’s shocking revelation that her former coach was fond of making ‘dirty jokes’ before he was charged with raping a national diver several years ago.
Ahmad Faizal said he was gathering further information from several athletes and planned to contact former Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin to get clarity on the issue.
However, he declined to name the athletes he was contacting. – Bernama, October 25, 2021
