SHAH ALAM, Aug 25 — The Football Association of Selangor (FAS)’s privatisation process is expected to be completed by the middle of next month, said its secretary-general Johan Kamal Hamidon.

He said it is finalising a few details on the matter before handing over to the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and the Malaysian Football League (MFL).

"In terms of agreement and arrangement, Red Giants FC Sdn Bhd already has an understanding with FAS. So the deadline of Sept 30 (for the privatisation process) is not a problem for FAS,” he said when asked to comment on the development of privatising the Selangor football team.

He said this at a press conference after an agreement signing ceremony between FAS and Les’ Copaque here, today, which saw the leading local animation company becoming a sponsor for ‘FAS Football School ’programme.

Present at the ceremony were the Raja Muda of Selangor, Tengku Amir Shah Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah who is also the president of FAS and Les ’Copaque managing director, Burhanuddin Mohd Radzi.

Asked if FAS fans will be among the shareholders of Red Giants FC Sdn Bhd, Johan said so far it has not received any suggestions on the matter but is open to the idea.

"The Raja Muda of Selangor Tengku Amir Shah often stated that football is a people’s sport, so we are open to the idea but so far it (shareholding proposal) has not been presented,” he said.

Earlier, the media reported that FAM president, Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin gave a stern warning that teams who failed in the privatisation process would be relegated to the lower league, and even face obstacles in playing in the Malaysian League (M-League) competition.

For the record, the five teams which have completed privatisation are Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT), Petaling Jaya FC (PJ City), Negri Sembilan, Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM) and Sarawak United.

FAM has given until September 30 to all 24 M League teams to complete the privatisation process including changing their status from football association (FA) to football club (FC).

Commenting on the agreement between FAS and Les ’Copaque, Johan said the animation company agreed to sponsor RM120,000 for a period of one year for the FAS Football School programme.

"It is the initial stage of sponsorship. The sponsorship will be raised as more schools participate in this programme. We (FAS) with Les ’Copaque do have some key performance indicators to achieve and for the initial stage this amount is enough,” he said.

He said so far six primary schools with about 500 students had participated in the programme and 12 schools have been targeted to participate in the programme by the end of this year. — Bernama