PUTRAJAYA, Sept 10 — The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) has been instructed to submit a detailed report to the national sports commissioner on Tuesday night’s fiasco that prematurely ended Malaysia’s World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

He said national sports commissioner Datuk Zaiton Othman had already issued the order through a letter sent yesterday to FAM, which will have 14 days from the date of the letter to respond.

“Once the commissioner gets the report, then Datuk Zaiton can take whatever action necessary,” Khairy said at a news conference here.

“This includes provisions under Section 20(1)(6) to deregister or suspend a sports body that does not rectify any malpractice, misconduct or irregularity by its office bearers or members within the period specified in the written notice given by the Commissioner,” he added, referring to the Sports Development Act 1997.

Khairy said his ministry has gathered “a lot of intel, proof and information” pointing at FAM’s alleged failure to heed prior warnings that the incident was going to happen.

FAM, however, made no effort to stop the incident from happening even with the information in hand, he added.

“Of course FAM are at fault because they lost control of their own stadium... the security of the stadium on match day is the responsibility of FAM. The police, RELA and all are brought in under instruction of FAM,” he said.

Despite their early findings, Khairy said they will allow due process to take its course and wait for the national FA to respond to the sports commissioner's query.

He acknowledged that Malaysia could face sanctions by International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) if his ministry were to step in and suspend FAM, but stressed that it is a decision that will be made after the national football body sends in its report.

“Of course I've considered the long-term consequences, but we cannot not act just because we are concerned about international sanctions.

“When it comes to a stage where we have to intervene, then we have to intervene, but I will not take that decision lightly... let's wait for their response letter,” he said.

Responding to calls by Malaysian fans for the ministry not to suspend FAM but instead revamp its leadership, Khairy said such a move is not possible as they do not have the legal jurisdiction to do so.

He explained that the Act does not allow the ministry to revamp the leadership structure of any sports association, stressing that their office bearers are democratically elected.

“But the Act only gives us the power to suspend or deregister them. So I can’t restructure the leadership of a sports association, but we can certainly suspend or deregister them,” he said.

Police have detained and remanded 11 individuals until tomorrow in their probe on the chaos at Shah Alam stadium Tuesday night, when fans believed to be part of hardcore local football supporters Ultras Malaya threw flares and shot fireworks onto the pitch, forcing match officials to end the game three minutes before fulltime.

The hooliganism follows Malaysia’s 10-0 defeat to the United Arab Emirates in another World Cup qualifier game last Thursday, a result which news portal The Star Online claimed prompted the Ultra Malayas to allegedly protest against the FAM.

On Monday, national news agency Bernama reported Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah announcing that he will resign as the FAM president over the national team’s 10-0 defeat to the United Arab Emirates.

Dollah Salleh had last Friday resigned as the national team’s coach following the 10-0 loss, while former international midfielder Datuk Ong Kim Swee was appointed as temporary coach.