PETALING JAYA, OCT 2 — A total 34 complaints on the poor performances of referees were received by the Football Association of Malaysia’s (FAM) Referees Committee up to the second quarter finals actions of the 2019 Malaysia Cup competition.

Of the 34, involving all the Malaysian League, FA Cup and Malaysia Cup matches, 21 were made by accredited referee assessors while 13 were by the competing teams.

This was disclosed by the FAM Referee Committee chairman, Md Dali Wahid who also confirmed that 16 referees were warned, five were suspended from their duties for two weeks and heavier penalties were being mulled for three other referees.

‘‘As of the second quarter finals actions. FAM receives complaints saying that referees were bad and performed unsatisfactorily. And FAM had acted on the complaints by issuing warnings and imposing punishments on the referees concerned with the aim of educating them.

‘‘It was in order to prove that we view seriously the issue of refereeing quality. Mistakes made cannot just be ignored and we are also finding ways towards improvements,’’ he told a media conference of the FAM Referees Committee Special Meeting at Wisma FAM here today.

At the same time, Md Dali warned all teams and coaches who had a tendency to go to the media to express their dissatisfaction against the poor local refereeing quality rather than to the more appropriate channel.

‘‘FAM will act firmly on all criticisms hurled by any team official and coach. If you are unhappy, an official protest can be made and an investigation will be made on the protest.

‘‘Don’t just wallop over the social media and make a perception when your team loses that it was caused by the referee,’’ he said.

The credibility of local referees are often questioned and linked to the allegation of being of low quality when refereeing matches especially high intensity ones.

The scenario witnessed FAM and the Malaysian Football League (MFL) creating history when for the first time they appointed a Japanese referee, Takuto Okabe who was assisted by Akane Yagi and Osamu Nomura, to handle the 2019 FA Cup final, in July. — Bernama