PETALING JAYA: Johor Regent Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim has questioned the Football Association of Malaysia’s (FAM) decision to suspend their secretary-general Datuk Noor Azman Rahman over the documentation issue involving seven heritage players.
He felt the move was unnecessary and said everyone involved should take responsibility, including national team chief executive officer Rob Friend.
Azman was suspended on Oct 17 to allow an internal investigation following FIFA’s probe into the status of seven heritage players in the national squad.
FAM had earlier said a technical error occurred during the submission of the players’ documents to FIFA.
“I did not agree. To be honest, I feel the suspension of the FAM secretary-general was not right. I do not agree with it.
“In this project, many people were involved in helping FAM – whether in scouting players or other areas.
“Everyone should take responsibility, including the CEO (Friend) and others,” said Tunku Ismail at a press conference here yesterday.
The Regent said he was not interested in pointing fingers and was more focused on finding the best way to resolve the issue.
“To be honest, I’m not here to play the blame game. What’s important is finding the best solution for the national team.
“I’m not here to blame anyone, but I want to focus on how we can resolve this matter,” he said.
Last month, FAM and seven heritage players – Gabriel Palmero, Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, Joao Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal and Hector Hevel – were sanctioned by FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee for breaching Article 22 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code related to document forgery.
Following the decision, FAM were fined Swiss francs 350,000 (about RM1.8mil), while each player was fined Swiss francs 2,000 (around RM10,560) and suspended for 12 months from all football-related activities.
FAM have since filed an appeal with FIFA and is now awaiting the outcome, which is expected to be announced on Oct 30.
