Archive for April 2001
KUALA LUMPUR April 29 – Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah was today elected unopposed as the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) president for a sixth consecutive term.
The Sultan, who had expressed his desire to step down several times, took over the post from Tan Sri Hamzah Abu Samah in 1984.
The two deputy presidents – Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah and Tengku Tan Sri Ahmad Rithauddeen – were also re-elected unopposed at the 38th FAM Congress here.
The congress, which was attended by 49 delegates, saw a seven-cornered fight for the four vice-president posts.
Those elected are incumbents Datuk Raja Ahmad Zainuddin Raja Omar and Datuk Dr Ibrahim Saad, and Selangor FA president Tengku Ahmad Shah and Datuk Redzuan Sheikh Ahmad of Perlis.
Raja Ahmad obtained 41 votes; Ibrahim, 26 votes; Tengku Ahmad, 28 votes; and Redzuan, 34 votes.
The unsuccessful candidates were incumbent Tan Sri Mohd Ali Hashim (Johor), Tan Sri Megat Junid Megat Ayub (KLFA) and Datuk Anifah Aman (Sabah).
The fourth incumbent, Datuk Abu Bakar Daud, did not seek re-election as he is now the Ambassador to Egypt.
Datuk Dell Akbar Khan and Datuk Yap Nyim Keong remain the general-secretary and deputy general-secretary respectively.
In his speech, Sultan Ahmad reminded state FAs to intensify their development programmes to help uplift the standard of Malaysian football.
“Only with the continued efforts and cooperation of all parties can FAM realise its ambition of restoring local football to its former glory,” he said.
He advised states to be careful with their expenditure as it had become increasingly difficult to get sponsorship.
In fact, the government allocation for sports was reduced from RM1 billion to RM540 million under the Eighth Malaysia Plan, he said.
“As such, FAM also needs to take the necessary actions to cut expenditure in line with the government’s move,” he said.
Utusan Malaysia
LANGKAWI April 6 – The FA of Malaysia has selected the Langkawi Sports Complex Mini Stadium as the venue for the Kedah home matches of the President’s Cup beginning on Sunday.
Kedah FA Executive Secretary Abu Hassan Ahmad said today the move augured well for the development of football on the resort island.
“We welcome the selection of Langkawi as the venue for the second time as this will attract more local football fanatics to watch the eight home matches in which Kedah will be involved,” he said.
Abu Hassan said an FAM Cup match involving Kedah and Lada would also be played at the mini stadium.
Abu Hassan said Kedah would meet Pahang here on Sunday after edging Sarawak 1-0 last week.
He said 25 new and old players including those from the Milo Cup squad had joined the Kedah squad now undergoing intensive training under several coaches including former national Roshidi Shaari.
Utusan Malaysia
My Soccer World 