FAM WARN ERRANT REFEREES
They face the boot if no improvement
MOHD FITRIE MUHAMAD mfitrie@nstp.com.my AFTER three friendly matches, national Under-23 squad coach Ong Kim Swee is still not satisfied with the performance of his charges.
In their last friendly match in South Korea yesterday, the Under-23 side drew 1-1 against Jeonju Citizens.
Safawi Rasid scored the equalising goal in the 75th minute to cancel out Oh Tae Hwan’s open- chairman, Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh said the move is to ensure that the referees do their jobs properly.
“For these four referees, we have relegated them to officiating Premier League matches. So for the whole of next season, they will only officiate matches in the second tier of the MLeague.
“Throughout next season, they will only serve as match officials in the Premier League. We will also be carrying out observations on them as well as other ing goal for the hosts in the 15th minute.
“By playing in such a high intensity match, we achieved our objective. Overall we still need to make adjustments and improvements here and there for the last tune-up match against the Syrian Under-23 team in Nanjing, China.
“From that match, only then will we be able to measure our referees.
“If they continue to make mistakes and fail to improve on the quality of refereeing, then they will not be allowed to discharge their duties as match officials anymore,” he stressed.
On Wednesday, it was reported that six referees have been suspended for two weeks, and four more were “put on ice” after they were found to make wrong calls in M-League matches last season.
Out of the 18 complaints received by FAM last season, the Referees Committee also issued two warnings to two referees while five complaints were found strengths and weaknesses. We cannot compare the performances from qualifying round matches against friendly matches.
“However, I believe that our boys are showing improvement from one match to another. What’s important is that our players’ performance peaks at just the right time when the Asian Football Confederation to be without basis.
Subkhiddin stressed that the committee is making efforts to improve the quality of refereeing in the country by intensifying efforts on the learning and educating process.
“Many people like to see referees getting punished. Many ask that referees be suspended, but if we follow such requests, then are there replacements truly capable of filling such vacancies in the first place?
“We do not simply punish match officials but we want them to learn from their mistakes so that they do not repeat such mistakes.” Under-23 Championship gets underway in China,” said Kim Swee.
The national Under-23 squad will open their campaign in the championship against Iraq on Jan 10, Jordan on Jan 13 and Saudi Arabia on Jan 16.
In two earlier friendly matches, the national Under-23 squad drew 1-1 with Mokpo City FC, and notched a 1-0 win over Honam University. Mohd Fitrie Muhamad