Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) will make an appeal regarding FIFA sanctions over the abandoned match due to crowd trouble in the match between Malaysia and Saudi Arabia on Sept 8.
The national football governing body was fined for RM180, 000, while the match against United Arab Emirates on Nov 17 would be played behind closed doors. FAM were also given a stern warning to prevent a repeat of such incidents.
Deputy President of FAM, Datuk Mokhtar Ahmad described the sanctions as ‘too much’ and claims that they will be filing an appeal with FIFA.
“A defeat and losing three points is a heavy punishment. I hope the fans learn their lesson. We will look into the details of the punishment and then we will file an appeal for that.
“If we still have time to appeal, we want to make use of it as much as we can.
“We might able to reduce the punishment; FIFA might also want to consider lifting the ban for the game against UAE so that the fans will be able to come to the stadium but we will have to refer to the FIFA if it’s feasible,” he told Utusan Malaysia at Wisma FAM yesterday.
On Sept 8, the match was abandoned in the 88th minute as numerous flares and smoke bombs were thrown to the pitch and fireworks were released inside the stadium, forcing the match officials, coaches and players to return to the dressing room.
FAM has been sanctions on two similar incidents over the course of two years.
They were fined RM43,173 for crowd trouble during a friendly match against Philippines at Selayang Stadium, on March last year.
FAM received a higher sanction when they have to pay RM151, 108 after some of the Malaysian fans attacked Vietnamese fans during the 2014 AFF Suzuki Cup semi-final first leg, on December last year.
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