Hamidin elected as MFL’s premier president

Malaysia Football League (MFL) lost a chairman but gained a president following their board meeting in Petaling Jaya yesterday.

The board unanimously decided to amend the constitution by dropping the chairman’s position and replacing it with a president, who does not have ties with any of the M-League teams.

And as a result, FA of Malaysia (FAM) head Datuk Hamidin Amin was elected as the first president of MFL.

Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) owner Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim had served as chairman of MFL before the change yesterday.

“Being the president of MFL will be challenging. It was not something I wanted at first,” said Hamidin yesterday.

“But after receiving the support from all 24 teams (during the board meeting), I changed my mind and accepted this role for the good of football.

“I hope to get the support of everyone to resolve the final grant payment for this year to the teams as well as finding new sponsors for the new season.”

MFL chief executive Kevin Ramalingam thanked Tunku Ismail for his undivided support and countless contributions as chairman of MFL.

“Tunku Ismail changed a lot of things when he served as our chairman for two years. However, there were also talks that MFL were biased towards JDT because of Tunku Ismail’s position as chairman.

“To move away from that, the board decided to not allow the president to be someone connected to M-League teams,” said Kevin.

Hamidin’s immediate task will be to divide his time between FAM and MFL to ensure that neither responsibilities are impacted.

Things have not been good since the start of the current season for MFL following the termination of the sponsorship contract with Telekom Malaysia.

With less than four months to go before the new season, Hamidin will have to work hard to ensure MFL, FAM and the MLeague are administered accordingly and that targets are achieved.