Asian Football Confederation removes honorary president from proposed FAM statute, saying the role is outdated in modern football governance.
KUALA LUMPUR: The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has moved to exclude the honorary president position from the proposed 2026 Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) statute.
AFC secretary-general Datuk Seri Windsor Paul John said such roles are no longer relevant in modern football governance and not practised by major football governing bodies including International Federation of Association Football (FIFA).
“There is no more honorary practice. It used to be there and it was popular, FIFA and AFC also have but now in modern football, the statute has changed,” he said when met here yesterday.
The proposal was part of the 94 articles proposed in the 2026 FAM statute which will be tabled by the AFC during the FAM Extraordinary Congress in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, this Thursday.
The current FAM honorary president is held by its former president Tan Sri Hamidin Mohd Amin, who was appointed during the extraordinary congress in June last year.
Windsor also outlined wider proposed reforms involving a major restructuring of standing committees, saying that committee leadership should be based on expertise rather than executive committee representation.
As such, he said AFC has proposed that key areas such as stadium management, security, integrity, referees and medical committees be chaired by subject-matter experts.
In the meantime, Windsor said that the chairing of the FAM Extraordinary Congress will be decided by the congress itself.
He said that the chairperson could be nominated from any relevant football body, including FIFA or AFC, on the day of the extraordinary congress.
In January, all FAM Executive Committee members for the 2025–2029 term announced resignation en masse on a collective and voluntary basis.
The decision was made unanimously, taking into account organisational responsibility and without personal interests or positions, and was a prudent and principled step in light of the current situation that has drawn public attention on heritage player issue, among other aims to safeguard the integrity of FAM.
Windsor was reportedly said a special team from the AFC will be formed and led by AFC deputy secretary-general Vahid Kardany, together with several consultants, to carry out the assessment before presenting a report with recommendations for improvements to FAM.
