Rejected test of 8 countries, Malaysia forming a national team similar to Indonesia

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —

The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) has set up a special unit to focus more on the management of the Malaysian national team after the Harimau Malaya team was rejected by eight countries for trials in FIFA game day October.

FAM continues to improve the governance of Malaysian football, including the development of national team affairs.

Recently, Malaysia failed to increase the FIFA Matchday agenda for October 2024 as they could only play one test match, that is against New Zealand on Monday (14/10).

This was because Malaysia was rejected by eight countries for the trial because these countries had pre-planned interests.

Even though FIFA Matchday games are very important for a country, including Malaysia, to enhance player experience and increase ratings.

For this reason, in order to improve the performance of the national team in the future, FAM decided to create a new unit specifically to manage the Malaysian national team.

This step is similar to what PSSI did in Indonesia. The unit chaired by Sumardji is called the National Team Group (BTN).

“Why does that unit need to exist, because there needs to be specialization to manage the continuity and performance of the national team. [Malaysia] to be better,” said FAM Vice President Datuk Mohd Yusoff Mahadi after the FAM Executive Committee Meeting, Monday (7/10).

“This part will be specially protected so that the finance is not used for other matters,” said Yusoff.

This particular unit not only looks after the senior interests of the Malaysian national team, but also the Harimau Malaya U-23 team.

[Gambas:Video CNN]

(rhr/jal)