PUTRAJAYA, April 4 — Youth and Sports Minister Mohammed Taufiq Johari hopes the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) can form a new leadership capable of bringing positive changes to the country’s football landscape.

He said the appointment of a new FAM leadership can pave the way to improving existing weaknesses, thereby ensuring efforts to uplift the national football team’s dignity can be realised.

“FAM will be appointing new executive councillors, and I hope it will pave the way for us to work on improving whatever weaknesses there are together.

“I’ve never given up on the development of Malaysian football, and I hope we can restore its glory years,” he said in an exclusive interview with Bernama, led by Editor-in-Chief Arul Rajoo Durar Raj at the minister’s office here recently.

FAM are reportedly set to hold their elections either in August or September to form a new leadership following the collective and voluntary resignation of all the executive members for the 2025-2029 term with immediate effect in January.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Taufiq remains confident that the country’s football has a bright future, although its image has taken a slight beating internationally due to certain issues.

He said public perception could not be fully controlled, but that proactive steps were important to restore the national team’s glory years through comprehensive reforms, especially in terms of governance.

“What is more important is how we want to move forward to restore the national team’s glory years. Surely, good governance is extremely crucial, supported by a strong system and encouragement through existing programmes,” he said.

He also stressed the public’s belief that the country’s football development must be restored, especially at the grassroots level, starting with programmes such as the National Football Development Programme (NFDP).

Last month, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) partially upheld the appeal of the seven players against the punishment imposed by FIFA over the falsification of naturalisation and eligibility documents, with the 12-month suspension applying only to official matches and not all football-related activities.

At the same time, the CAS also rejected FAM’s appeal to reduce the punishment, thereby upholding the CHF350,000 (about RM1.8 million) fine imposed by FIFA. 

The seven players involved are Hector Hevel, Imanol Machuca, Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Joao Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal and Gabriel Palmero.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Disciplinary and Ethics Committee, meanwhile, found that FAM had breached Article 56 of the AFC Disciplinary and Ethics Code for fielding ineligible players in two Asian Cup 2027 qualifying matches against Nepal and Vietnam.

As such, the national football team was docked points by the AFC, which dashed Malaysia’s hopes of featuring in the Asian Cup Finals on merit for the second consecutive time.

The Harimau Malaya squad, under the guidance of head coach Peter Cklamovski, concluded their Group F fixtures in the 2027 Asian Cup Qualifiers in second place with nine points, while Vietnam advanced to the Finals as group champions with 18 points. Laos finished third with six points while Nepal propped up the group with three points. — Bernama