SHAH ALAM, March 27 — The issue regarding the Football Association of Selangor (FAS) not being allowed to make the Shah Alam Stadium (SSA) their official home venue for the 2018 Malaysian League saw a hot debate erupt between a state executive councillor and a Barisan Nasional (BN) state assemblyman at the State Assembly here today.
Selangor Youth and Sports Development, Culture and Entrepreneur Development Standing Committee chairman Amirudin Shari, when responding to a supplementary question by Budiman Mohd Zohdi (BN-Sungai Panjang) claimed the FAS had not sent a letter to use the stadium until the end of 2017.
“I would like to put it on record here, that in 2017, FAS president Datuk Seri Subahan Kamal said they had sent countless letters (to the state government) to use SSA, but no letter was given by the FAS throughout the year to the state government to use SSA, until the end of 2017, and I sent a letter back to them to hold a discussion.
“But the reply I received from the FAS was they did not want to discuss with me, and only wanted to see the Mentri Besar (Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali) to discuss it,” he said.
Budiman had asked whether FAS and the state government had planned negotiations to resolve the issue.
According to the Sungai Panjang assemblyman, the SSA was the main icon of sports development in Selangor, and the conflict between SSA and FAS over the use of the stadium was detrimental to the people of Selangor.
“So, people see this issue as how the state government is managing their political ego. I want to ask whether this stadium crisis will be dragged on before the Selangor football team can continue to play at SSA?”
The media previously reported that the ‘The Red Giants’ team were denied from playing at SSA following internal problems between the FAS and the state government, since the end of 2016.
Since then, the ‘Red Giants’ have no official home venue of their own, forcing them to adopt other venues as home ground. — Bernama
