PETALING JAYA, June 5 — The FA of Malaysia (FAM) should begin acting more professionally and, for starters, it should handle matters more efficiently.
Football Coaches Association Malaysia president B. Satiananthan told Mailsport, the association had pleaded with FAM for contractual disputes involving coaches to be heard more quickly.
Referring to Malay Mail’s backpage yesterday, titled “Where’s my money?”, Sathiananthan felt Steve Darby should not have waited 14 months to receive a settlement from Kelantan FA (Kafa) following his dismissal in April last year.
“There should be a time frame,” he said.
“Darby didn’t pursue the matter through us, so I’m unaware of the facts, but 14 months is too long. We have appealed to FAM to speed-up cases.
“It’s not fair for coaches to wait so long. It’s a job and like everyone, we have families to feed. This is our rice bowl.”
The FAM Status Committee only decided to seek a response from Kafa in January, nine months after Darby lodged his complaint.
FAM requested an affidavit in March, but Darby claimed all communications had stopped after that.
Darby told Mailsport, Kelantan relieved him of duties without a performance review and did not respond to a nine-month payoff request. Darby had 17 months left on his contract.
“The club has the prerogative to sack coaches. That is their right but there are terms and clauses to be followed with regards to termination,” said Satiananthan.
Kafa general secretary Datuk Ismail Md Noor refused to comment, saying: “The case is with FAM so there’s no point in commenting. Let them decided.” He claimed Kafa sent an affidavit last month.
FAM general-secretary Datuk Hamidin Amin said Darby’s case will be heard during the status committee meeting on June 15.
“The legal department has followed through on this case before. I’ll get the chronology from the legal department, when I return tomorrow (today),” said Hamidin, who was in Singapore for the SEA Games.
Efforts to contact status committee chairman Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan were futile.
