Malaysia failed to reach the semi-finals in Singapore after ending the Group B campaign in third place. They began the campaign with two wins (3-1 against Cambodia and 4-0 against Laos) before losing 3-0 to Vietnam and 4-1 to Indonesia, thus failing to achieve FAM’s target of qualifying for the final. — Picture via Facebook/FAM
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 7 — Former Kuala Lumpur Police chief Datuk Dell Akbar Khan has been appointed to head an independent investigation body to conduct a post-mortem on the national team’s performance at the recent Asean Football Federation (AFF) Cup 2020 in Singapore.
This was announced by Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) president Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin in a statement today.
According to him, Dell Akbar, who is also a former national player, had been given the mandate to appoint other individuals to be members of the independent body, which will comprise those who have held positions in football, including former players and coaches, but do not hold any position or be a member of any FAM committee currently.
“The main task of the independent body is to conduct a post-mortem on the team’s performance during the campaign in Singapore and a complete analysis of the coaching staff and management officials.
“The results of the post-mortem will then be presented by Datuk Dell Akbar, along with improvement measures to the FAM National Team Management Committee for discussion,” he said.
Malaysia failed to reach the semi-finals in Singapore after ending the Group B campaign in third place. They began the campaign with two wins (3-1 against Cambodia and 4-0 against Laos) before losing 3-0 to Vietnam and 4-1 to Indonesia, thus failing to achieve FAM’s target of qualifying for the final.
Harimau Malaya head coach Tan Cheng Hoe resigned on Monday (January 3), taking full responsibility for the team’s lacklustre performance.
However, some supporters and critics demanded that the FAM management also take responsibility for the team’s failure as they claimed that it was due to FAM’s weakness in planning and preparing the team properly. — Bernama