FAM acting president Datuk Yusoff Mahadi
PETALING JAYA: FAM had their reasons behind the sudden removal of the Independent Investigation Committee (IIC) report from their website just a day after it was published.
FAM acting president Datuk Yusoff Mahadi said the association had no objection to making the report public, as recommended in the IIC’s findings.
However, the timing of the publication raised concerns that it could affect ongoing legal proceedings at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The association has already filed an appeal over FIFA’s sanctions related to the document falsification involving seven heritage players.
Yusoff assured that once the legal process is complete, FAM will make the IIC report publicly available again.
“I believe we did upload it, as the IIC report is a public document. That’s why we uploaded it that afternoon. However, we overlooked the timing, as our submission to CAS was due on December 18.
“We removed it to ensure the report would not interfere with our lawyers’ submission to CAS. I promise that once we receive clearance from our legal team, we will upload it again, as it is a public document. We just need a little time to do so. At the time, it should have been uploaded only after the CAS submission,” he said.
The IIC, chaired by former Chief Justice Tun Md Raus Sharif, submitted the 59-page report to FAM on Tuesday (Dec 16).
Despite being published online, it was removed from the website within 24 hours.
