Khairy Jamaluddin Not Defending FAM Deputy President's Post

Khairy Jamaluddin Sunday announced that he will not be defending his post as deputy president of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) for the 2010-2015 term.

Khairy, who held the post from 2007, hoped the new candidate replacing him would be able to take a re-look at the FAM's progress as a whole, and claimed that the FAM, as the country's football parent body, had failed to build a strong football structure.

He said this was due to the internal problems within the FAM that led to the withdrawal of many of the sponsors.

Speaking to reporters here today, he said there were many sponsors for the local league previously but the private sector now preferred to sponsor advertisements for the World Cup and the English Premier League (EPL).

"We can't blame them because the returns (from the EPL) are higher. If they sponsor the local league, to get a few thousand supporters for one match will be difficult," he said.



Khairy claimed that the FAM had also failed to coordinate the football structure at the grassroots level which was also the reason why the national team failed to get quality players for the national team.

In fact, he claimed that the FAM did not have sufficient financial resources to develop a strong football structure at the grassroots level.

"More than 90 per cent of the FAM's financial allocation was spent to organise the local league to the extent that the FAM could not meet its promise to improve the country's football structure," he said.

Khairy claimed that less than 10 per cent of the FAM's financial allocation was spent for the district league.

Source: Bernama