PETALING JAYA: The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has proposed that the management of the Harimau Malaya squad be fully returned to the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) as part of the reform recommendations resulting from an audit of the country’s football governing body.
AFC Secretary-General Datuk Seri Windsor Paul John said the proposal was included in the recommendations submitted to FAM through the governance audit presented at the FAM Extraordinary Congress (EGM) here today.
He said the proposal aims to ensure that the management of the national team is under a clear administrative structure through the FAM national team committee.
“Back to FAM. The national team committee has to manage, meaning FAM has to manage, just like before,” he said when met by reporters at the FAM EGM here today.
Previously, the management of the national team went through a restructuring process, which saw the involvement of professional management with Rob Friend appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Harimau Malaya to help strengthen the operations and development of the national squad.
Earlier, the AFC presented an audit report on the administration of FAM which also formed the basis for the proposed amendment to the statute to strengthen the governance of the country’s football governing body.
The AFC’s proposed statute amendment was then unanimously approved by the FAM affiliate members.
Among the main proposals are the abolition of the position of Deputy President, reducing the number of Vice Presidents to three, and restructuring the FAM Executive Committee (Exco).
The audit report also found that most aspects of FAM’s operations were at Level 2 (Pre-Intermediate), thus showing that there is still room for improvement in various areas of organizational administration and management.
The assessment covers 11 key areas including governance and legal, administration, finance, human resources, infrastructure, communications, marketing, commercial development, advocacy, competition and performance development.
— BERNAMA