Controversial referee may be demoted
It is either suspension or demotion for Suresh
REFEREE Suresh Jayaraman could be suspended or demoted to officiating lower-tier competitions following his poor refereeing decisions in Saturday’s Malaysia Cup final between Terengganu and Perak at the Shah Alam Stadium.
FA of Malaysia (FAM) secretary general Stuart Ramalingam confirmed that Suresh’s overall performance will be evaluated in a move to improve the quality of refereeing in the M-League.
“We will conduct an internal inquiry when we receive the referee assessor ’s report for the final, which will be tomorrow,” said Stuart yesterday.
“From there, we will submit a report to our referees committee (for the next course of action). The views of the secretariat will be made known to the committee.
“The committee head Subkhiddin Salleh will study the reports and assess Suresh’s performance via videos of the final before coming up with a decision from the post-mortem.”
FAM have punished referees for poor performances in the past.
Last season, the national body relegated four Super League referees to the Premier League while six more were suspended for two weeks for making “inaccurate decisions” in the 2016 MLeague.
Suresh was harshly criticised by players, coaches and fans for his controversial decisions in the final.
He not only failed to take control of the match, he also disallowed two goals by Perak’s Leandro Dos Santos and Gilmar Filho for offside.
However, replays showed both scorers were onside. He also sent off two players during the ill-tempered match.
Malaysian Football League (MFL) chairman Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim also criticised the referee on Saturday.
“The referee for the Malaysia Cup final is bad. I have never seen him and I am surprised why he was picked for the final.
“This is the why MFL want to bring in professional referees for important matches,” Tunku Ismail tweeted.
In echoing Tunku Ismail’s sentiments to engage professional referees, Stuart said: “FAM are working closely with MFL in introducing professional referees.
“The introduction of professional referees is expected next season. It is our priority to improve the standard of refereeing in the M-League,” Stuart added.