PUTRAJAYA – The Youth and Sports Ministry has expressed interest in obtaining a detailed report from the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) following the Harimau Muda squad’s failure at the Under-23 Asian Cup in Qatar.
Malaysia suffered defeat in all their Group D matches, which shattered FAM president Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin’s aspirations for the Harimau Muda to secure a berth at the Paris Olympics in July.
Of the 23 players called up to compete in Qatar, the majority hailed from Akademi Mokhtar Dahari and the National Football Development Programme, initiatives spearheaded by the National Sports Council.
Given their significant role in nurturing these players during their formative years, it is only appropriate for the ministry to seek feedback on the reasons behind the national youth squad’s downturn in Qatar.
“I believe FAM will conduct a post-mortem session to review the U23 team’s performance in this Asian Cup, and I will await their report and hear from Datuk Hamidin,” said Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh when met at a Hari Raya open house, here today.
At the same time, Hannah takes a cautious approach, not wanting any party to start pointing fingers at each other over Malaysia’s failure in this edition of the U23 Asian Cup.
Several parties have urged the top management of FAM to take full responsibility by resigning over the embarrassing campaign in Qatar.
“I think every time our team loses, there will surely be calls for this or that individual to resign.
“I believe in every match, the chance of winning is fifty-fifty, so I don’t want to jump ahead and make any comments without knowing further details.
“It’s better to wait for the results of the post-mortem before any decisions can be made,” she added. – April 25, 2024