KUALA TERENGGANU, Oct 25 — The Terengganu Football Club Sdn Bhd has decided to retain the service of coach Nafuzi Zain by offering him a new contract for next season.

The matter was decided in the board of directors meeting chaired by State Youth, Sports and Non-Governmental Organisations Development Committee chairman Wan Sukairi Wan Abdullah at Seri Iman here today.

According to him, the decision to retain the service of the Kelantanese-born coach was based on his excellent performance which included helping Terengganu FC (TFC) to qualify for the FA Cup final and also qualifying for next year’s Asian Confederation Cup (AFC).

"The meeting also decided to offer Nafuzi Zain to continue to guide the TFC team next season with the current budget available with the Terengganu Football Club Sdn Bhd.

"The offer to renew his contract was made after we were all satisfied with his achievement besides Nafuzi fulfilling the key performance index (KPI) set by the management this season which was to qualify for the AFC and FA Cup final,” he said, at a press conference after the TFC Sdn Bhd board of directors meeting here today.

However, according to Wan Sukairi, they were still waiting for Nafuzi’s response to agree with the offer and continue with the AFC mission next season.

He also said the management will be sending the offer letter to Nafuzi in the near future and the young coach has been given 14 days to reply.

"We have offered Naruzi a one-year contract and we hope he could reply as quickly as possible so that we could follow up with other matters,” he said.

The 44-year-old Nafuzi began his career with the Turtle squad in 2018 as assistant coach to Ifran Bakti Abu Salim.

He was later appointed as the interim chief coach in 2019 after Irfan Bakti resigned suddenly following the team’s poor performance.

TFC then extended his services until 2022 after he steered the team to second place in the Super League, FA Cup runners-up and qualifying for next season’s AFC Cup. — Bernama