It hasn’t even been one month since the Johor Crown Prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim was sworn in as president, and he’s already swamped with myriad of problems.
The main problem is, of course, that the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) has no money, and Tunku Ismail has to start from scratch.
If that is not bad enough, FAM is also tangled up in two pending legal cases from the previous management.
“I’m very disappointed with the previous Exco members who were irresponsible in discharging their duties in the FAM. FAM is currently involved in two legal cases, one of which is against MP & Silva, and the other against a company with whom the FAM signed with for the Harimau Muda development squad to Slovakia.” the FAM president vented through a statement on the FAM official Facebook page.
“In the event the FAM loses these legal battles, the FAM would be required to pay RM 25 million and RM 9 million respectively.” That brings the total to RM 34 million for lawsuits alone.
The FAM president attributed these predicaments to “poorly written agreements” by the previous FAM management and EXCO members. He cannot fathom how they signed agreements that could be used against FAM.
“How could the FAM sign contracts favouring the other parties? The priorities, advantages, financial securities as well as other important matters should have been in favour of the FAM.”
“Instead, due to the poorly written agreements, it has left the FAM in a very weak and vulnerable position.”
The Crown Prince added that at the rate that this is going, FAM will not be able to recover financially even with capital injections, as the funds would have to be channeled back out — in the event FAM loses these two legal cases.
However, he assured local football fans that he will try his level best to “settle the matter outside the courts and retain the money in the FAM”, with some help from his contacts from Singapore and the Johor government.
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