Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) president Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim (TMJ) said he would interfere more directly with the player selection for the national team.
In a dialogue with fans and the media on Thursday, TMJ insisted that he needed to take action following Malaysia’s embarrassing 2-0 defeat to Hong Kong in the 2019 Asian Cup qualifier two days ago.
“I must admit that the distance between the national team and I is quite big,” he said, as quoted by the New Straits Times.
“I think now is the time I need to get close (to the national team), not because I want to make noise but because for many months, I gave the national team the freedom to do what it wanted to do and what it chose to do.
“It is not that I simply want to interfere but I want to do it because I feel some players in the national team should not be there. Why do we keep taking these players?
“The core of the group is important and we need to control that. There is no harmony in the national team now,” said Tunku Ismail.
The disappointing result on Tuesday has slumped Malaysia to the bottom of the group with only one point from three qualifying matches.
