KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 27 — The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) maintains its decision on the amount of compensation in the case of young national football star Muhammad Akhyar Abdul Rashid to redeem his contract from the Kedah Football Association (KFA).

The FAM Appeals Committee, which met yesterday, maintained the decision that the 19-year-old would only have to pay RM210,000 to redeem the balance of his contract with KFA to migrate to another team, while his new team had to pay RM75,000 to KFA.

The meeting chaired by Datuk Seri Mohammad Mokhtar Mohamad Sharif stressed that the decision of the FAM Status Committee which met on December 3 and 4 on Muhammad Akhyar’s claim for contract termination through contract redemption was fully accepted and maintained.

KFA, which was dissatisfied with the amount, had previously appealed to FAM to increase the compensation.

"He is allowed to redeem his contract with KFA for RM210,000. As an additional fee to KFA, any new team that signed a contract with him is required to pay RM75,000 to KFA for the amount of training compensation.

"The amount of compensation provided is not arbitrarily placed by FAM but it is based on articles contained in FAM’s Status and Transfer Rules,” the statement from FAM said today.

The FAM said the RM210,000 was set based on Muhammad Akhyar’s salary multiplied by his remaining contract with KFA, which is in accordance with Article 15A: Termination of contract on one side or contract redemption by team or player.

Meanwhile, RM75,000 was the training cost, the club category set by the International Football Federation (Fifa), namely, in accordance with Article 8: Training Compensation Computation FAM Status and Transfer Rules.

"The RM75,000 is the value of training compensation which becomes the extra money to be obtained by KFA by taking into account the noble values of football. For that, overall KFA will receive a total of RM285,000,” said the statement.

Muhammad Akhyar, who was named the best striker at the 2018 National Football Awards last month, still has a contract with the Green Yellow squad until the end of 2019.

Several teams such as the five consecutive times Super League champions Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) and Perlis were said to be keen to hire the Alor Setar-born player. — Bernama