PETALING JAYA: The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) will come up with a standard operating procedure (SOP) for event promoters bringing in foreign teams to Malaysia.
FAM general-secretary Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin hoped that this would help overcome the “organisational irregularities which have tarnished the image of Malaysian football”.
This follows complaints about the foreign teams’ treatment of local fans and media during their Asian Tours.
It has been reported that the local media have had no access to the foreign teams and that fans were also denied interaction with the teams.
Another complaint was the last-minute change of venue for the Barcelona-Malaysia friendly last week.
Hamidin stressed that the SOP would benefit Malaysian football.
The SOP, he said, would ensure compulsory interview slots for local media and for local coaches to interact with the visiting teams’ coaches.
“We have faced shortcomings involving foreign teams and the implementation of the SOP will ensure a smooth running of such events,” said Hamidin yesterday.
“In future, the media, technical and security aspects of such events will be handled or overseen by us directly. In the past, we were not directly involved but still ended up taking the rap for the organisers’ blunders. So, these measures will ensure there will be no more such hiccups.
“We also feel that we are not getting much benefit from the foreign teams visiting here and we plan to impose several measures that will benefit our football and the local media.”
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