PETALING JAYA, Nov 16 — The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) prefer to keep mum regarding speculation that Australian football legend Tim Cahill could be a part of a special unit that the governing body plan to set up.
FAM secretary-general Datuk Noor Azman Rahman neither confirmed nor denied the matter when asked.
“No comment, let’s wait,” was his brief reply when met at the launch of the “Kopi Pablo Dollah”, which is owned by national football legend Datuk Dollah Salleh, here today.
Previously, many had speculated that the former Everton midfielder would be involved in the move to revolutionise the Harimau Malaya squad through the special unit which, among others, is aimed specifically at monitoring the performance and management of the national football team.
This came about when a photograph of Cahill posing with the Regent of Johor, Tunku Mahkota Ismail; Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim; and Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) chief executive officer Alistair Edwards was uploaded on Tunku Mahkota Ismail’s Facebook page in August.
Besides being an icon and ambassador of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Cahill currently serves as chief sports officer at Aspire Academy and as the technical director for the Qatar Football Association.
Elaborating, Noor Azman said an announcement on the special unit would be made next month.
For the record, FAM deputy president Datuk Mohd Yusoff Mahadi recently confirmed that the governing body will not privatise the Harimau Malaya squad and, instead, a new unit will be created to monitor the performance and manage the national team as well as the Under-23 squad.
He was quoted as saying that the reason for creating the unit is, among others, to take care of the welfare and performance of national team players to ensure they improve and that the allocated funds are used only for the teams involved.
He added that Tunku Mahkota Ismail mooted the idea of setting up the unit during a meeting with the prime minister. — Bernama
