Will anything change?

Can the Tengku Mahkota Tengku Abdullah Ahmad Shah make a comeback? That seems to be what everyone is talking about as the Football Association of Malaysia's AGM draws near. Well, we will all know the answer on 31st July when the delegates vote to choose two Deputy Presidents from a list of six candidates.

One of them, Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim announced that he is witdrawing from the race, but his name is still on the list. Why the interest for the two number two posts? Well, maybe many feel that the President, Sultan Ahmad Shah, who won unopposed, may give up his post halfway through his term, and one of his Deputies will take over. 

But, the main concern should be about electing the right people to correct the many wrongs that have accumulated over the years in the running of football in the country.  From the list released by FAM recently, there don't seem to be any reason to celebrate but this could change if the new exco realises that the only way forward is to make drastic steps, like getting the right people to run the tournaments, the development projects and so on.

Former national coach, Claude Le Roy told me during the 1995 SEA Games in Chiang Mai, one of the reasons why he wanted to quit was that the FAM leadership at that time made decisions based on media reports and not expert opinions. Present when the French coach said thet were the team manager, Datuk Dell Akhbar Khan and FAM's Assistant Secretary, Datuk Yap Nyim Keong.

At that time Tengku Mahkota was the Deputy President. I hope things hace changed. I really do. 

The FAM List
President : Sultan Ahmad Shah (Unopposed)


Deputy President: (Two positions):
1.Tengku Mahkota Tengku Abdullah Ahmad Shah
2.Datuk Seri Redzuan Tan Sri Sheikh Ahmad
3.Datuk Hj Che Mat Jusoh
4.Tan Sri Datuk Seri Panglima Anuwar Musa
5.Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim
6.Datuk Abdul Mokhtar Ahmad

Vice President (Four positions):

1.Datuk Afandi Hamzah
2.Datuk Seri Raja Ahmad Zainuddin Raja Omar
3.Datuk S.Subramaniam
4.Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin
5.Datuk Seri Zahrain Mohamed Hashim


6.Datuk Seri Abdullah Hishan Mohd Hashim
7.Datuk Subahan Kamal
8.Datuk Lawrence Gimbang

Executive Committee (Eight vacancies):

1.Tan Sri Mohamad Noor Abdul Rahim
2.Datuk Seri Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman
3.Datuk Hamdan Mohamed Khalib
4.Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan
5.Datuk Jefery Low Han Chau
6.Datuk Astaman Abdul Aziz
7.Datuk Ibrahim Shamsuddin
8.Datuk Osman Salleh
9.Datuk Soh Chin Ann
10.Rosmadi Ismail
11.Mej Rani Abdul Rahim
12.Wan Mohd Nizam Wan Omar
13.S.Sivasundram.