Skip to main content

FAM: We won on flair, not flares

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia beat Indonesia in the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup final first leg match “on merit” and not because fans distracted the Indonesian players, says FA of Malaysia (FAM) general secretary Datuk Azzuddin Ahmad.

He said Malaysia only started scoring after the fans were warned that the match would be suspended if they continued to use laser light beams to distract the players.

“There were no disturbances after the warning. That was when Malaysia scored,” he said yesterday.
On Sunday night, some fans had used laser light beams to distract Indonesian players by shining them on their faces during the match at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia beat Indonesia 3-0 in the match.

The game was stopped for six minutes after 53 minutes of play when the Indonesians protested against fans distracting them.

Although he admitted that the fans’ behaviour was wrong, Azzuddin said Malaysian football fans were generally well-behaved and disciplined.

“We have a few black sheep but it doesn’t mean everybody is bad,” he said, adding that items such as laser light beams were banned from football matches.

“But if you have a crowd of 85,000, it is difficult to conduct checks as laser lights can be as small as half the size of a cigarette,” Azzuddin said.

He added that the FAM would discuss how to stop such items from being brought into stadiums in January.
Famemas Supporters Club chairman Lee Hui Seng said Malaysia deserved to win as the team played with more determination, teamwork and skills.

However, Lee said the fans should not have misbehaved as it created a negative impression on Malaysia as host.

“We may not get a chance to host any future events if the fans’ behaviour gets out of hand. If we win, we must win gracefully,” he said.

Olympic Council of Malaysia deputy president Tan Sri Dr M. Jegathesan said the fans’ actions should not be condoned.

A fan known only as Zapa, who was at the game, said the fans who used the laser light beams only targeted the Indonesian goalkeeper.



By YUEN MEIKENG and FARIK ZOLKEPLI
newsdeak@thestar.com.my

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ex-coach's jail sentence cut to a year

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal yesterday sentenced former athletics coach C. Ramanathan to 12 months' jail for molesting two junior athletes 19 years ago. A three-man bench led by Datuk Mohd Hishamudin Mohd Yunus unanimously dismissed Ramanathan's appeal against conviction, but varied the jail sentence of four years to a year, which was to run concurrently. Following yesterday's ruling, Ramanathan, 75, a former teacher, walked out a free man as he had served 10 months in Kajang Prison. Convicts get one-third remission for good behaviour while in prison. However, he will lose his pension. Hishamudin, who sat with Datuk Abdul Wahab Patail and Datuk Linton Albert, said the court found no merit to overturn the conviction. "However, in reducing the sentence, we considered Ramanathan's age and the long years the appeal has taken." Deputy public prosecutor Awang Armadajaya Awang Mahmud submitted that then High Court judge Tan Sri Abdull Hamid E...

Badminton: Fans rooting for all-Malaysian semis

Reports: RAJES PAUL KUALA LUMPUR: The home fans will be rooting for an all-Malaysian men’s singles semi-final between Lee Chong Wei and Liew Daren. But Chong Wei is more fancied to advance than Daren in quarter-final matches against Indonesian Simon Santoso and Dane Peter Gade-Christensen respectively at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil today. Yesterday, Chong Wei defeated Vietnamese Nguyen Tien Minh 21-9, 18-21, 21-7 in a second-round match that saw the world number one struggling to adapt to the draught in the stadium in the second game. And Daren continued a fairy tale run in his home Open, blowing away a toothless Hsueh Hsuan-yi of Taiwan 21-14, 21-12. Although Choong Wei had to slog for the win over Tien Minh, the top seed and defending champion felt that he was playing better by the day. “I got off to a good start but found it hard to cope with the draught. I tried to catch up after losing my momentum but that did not happen and I decided to conserve energy for ...

Rajagobal Let Off The Hook

PETALING JAYA, April 24 (Bernama) -- National head coach Datuk K. Rajagobal was let off the hook by the Football Association of Malaysia's (FAM) Disciplinary Committee after finding no evidence that he had violated FAM's Article 88, as claimed. FAM Disciplinary Committee chairman Datuk Taufik Abdul Razak said the committee had decided not to charge Rajagobal after carefully analysing the video of the post-match press conference by the 56-year-old coach. "After listening to the recording of the post-match press conference, we decided to drop the charge against Rajagopal as he did not make such a statement. "Maybe his (Rajagobal) assessment and comments of the match was misconstrued by the media. There was no mention of the FAM policy throughout his comments," said Taufik after emerging from a three-hour Disciplinary Committee meeting at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya, here, Wednesday. Rajagobal who does not mince his words when asked to com...