Getting things in order: Faliq Firdaus has promised to pay up last season’s money owed to the football players by the previous management in stages. — Negri Sembilan United
PETALING JAYA: There will be no more salary woes.
This is the assurance given by Negri Sembilan’s newly appointed chief executive officer (CEO) Faliq Firdaus ahead of their new M-League campaign this season.
In fact, Faliq has promised to pay up last season’s money owed to the football players by the previous management in stages.
And that’s not all, Negri are set to have their own training centre.
Faliq wants to settle all the problems so that the players can focus on reviving Negri’s fortunes this year.
“We will settle the dues for both local and foreign players and it will be done in stages. We have assured the players that this would be done,” said Faliq.
“We hope to settle everything by the time the team reports for pre-season, which could be in mid-February or latest by March.”
Due to salary issues, Negri under the tutelage of coach K. Devan, finished ninth with 27 points in the Super League last year.
Faliq is also bent on building a new training centre for the team.
“We need to have our own training centre instead of looking for fields to rent in Negri Sembilan,” said Faliq.
“This season, we should do the right thing. I will make sure that we will have our own training centre this season.
“We have spoken to the state government and the municipal council. There are suggestions to build one in Rasah Jaya.”
Another of his plan is to beef up the team.
“We want to sign up several young players from the reserve team under a longer-term contract as we want them to be the core of this team. We have a long-term plan.
“But that doesn’t mean that we will drop the seniors.
“To remain competitive, we will have five imports. We also want to retain Zaquan Adha (Abdul Radzak) as well despite his age (37).
Faliq said Devan’s replacement would be a local and it would be announced next week.
Some of the names linked to the club are Azzmi Aziz, Ishak Kunju Abdullah, K. Nanthakumar, and Wan Rohaimi Wan Ismail.
“We will give the mandate to the coach to choose his team. Our pre-season could be in mid-February or latest by March.”
