PETALING JAYA: All eyes will now be on Putrajaya and Malaysian football’s sponsors following the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) damning audit of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM).
Over the years, Malaysian football – particularly FAM – has received millions of ringgit in government funding.
The regional body revealed that FAM had not presented its budget to Congress “since at least 2016”, constituting a direct breach of its statutes.
AFC deputy general secretary Vahid Kardany, who led the audit into FAM, included a slide titled “FAM operating outside its rules for over a decade” during his 74-minute presentation at the national body’s extraordinary congress earlier today.
Besides the revelation that FAM had not presented its budget to Congress for 10 years, the audit also uncovered:
- The general secretary had difficulty managing staff and holding them accountable.
- Independent structures were compromised.
- There were no escalation mechanisms for staff, and retaliation was reportedly widespread.
- Elected officials were signing documents that should have been handled by administrators.
- There were no policies on sexual harassment, whistleblowing, conflicts of interest or procurement.
- FAM did not have a compliance officer.
- Its legal department was severely understaffed.
- Seventy per cent of FAM’s income was spent on national team expenses and staff salaries, leaving only 30 per cent for development projects.
- There was no long-term commercial strategy.
- There was no women’s football commercial policy.
- No social responsibility or leadership policy existed.
- There was no formal mandate governing capability building at any level.
- Media access was granted selectively.
- Several departments were understaffed, while others had more than enough staff.
- Brand guidelines were outdated.
- There were no approved marketing and promotion strategies.
- A fear-based culture suppressed staff from escalating concerns.
- Authority was informally concentrated at the top, bypassing formal mandates and reporting lines.
Kardany said most of the problems were the result of legacy issues.
“They carried on doing what was okay in the past. That resulted in repeated failures across the association’s entire organisational structure,” he said.
“We have also recommended that, in future, the general secretary must sit for an eligibility test before being appointed.”
AFC also said the national body’s dysfunction was systemic as the regional body went on to score the various departments within Wisma FAM.
AFC gave FAM’s finance, business information and risk management functions a score of 1.2 out of five – its lowest rating – while its communications and media department received the highest mark of two out of five.
All the other areas received between 1.3 and 1.8 points.
“One issue with FAM was that it hired smart people but never allowed them to do their jobs. They did not empower their staff, which is their greatest asset,” said Kardany.
“Strong committee structures exist only on paper, but governance is not formalised or enforced.
“More professionals must be involved from the administrative departments, with the heads given greater authority to make decisions.”
AFC stepped in to conduct the audit after FAM’s previous exco quit on Jan 28 following the doctored documents scandal involving seven Harimau Malaya footballers.
AFC general secretary Datuk Seri Windsor Paul John praised FAM for being transparent and open during the audit.
“We are here today because FAM wants to change and asked for our help,” he said.
“We have made some recommendations and will continue monitoring FAM for the next two years as it implements changes to its statutes.”
