Safa leadership hiccups set to end soon
KOTA KINABALU: The leadership problems faced by Sabah Football Association (Safa) are set to end soon.
Hamid Apdal, whose decision to step down as the deputy president I in August was rejected by the Safa Supreme Council, has been appointed as the acting president of the state football governing body.
In confirming the matter here yesterday, Safa assistant secretary general I Reggie Sua @ Hafiz said the appointment was done in accordance with the constitution with unanimous decision received at a recent Supreme Council meeting.
Safa is without a president after Alijus Sipil announced his resignation recently.
“We have brought up the matter during the meeting and according to Safa Constitution, when a president resigns then the deputy president will lead the association on an acting basis.
“In Safa, we have two deputy presidents and it was unanimously agreed that the duties of the president will be held by the deputy president I (Hamid) and assisted by the deputy president II Datuk Rahman Zakaria.
“We conducted our tasks or made decisions following the constitution and no rules and regulations were violated so that Safa is on the right track and follow the constitutions accordingly under the Malaysia Sports Commission,” he told reporters.
Reggie also revealed that Hamid, who resigned down as deputy president I just four days being elected at the Safa Congress in August, has been informed of the decision and that the latter would be making an announcement on the matter soon.
“I have met him recently too and he (Hamid) told me that he needed some time before making a decision.
“We will call for a Supreme Council meeting once he has informed me of his decision,” said Reggie who expected things should be settled in the next couple of weeks.
Reggie went on to say that they had also accepted the resignation of vice president I Joehari Ayub, apart from that of Alijus.
“The Supreme Council accepted Alijus’ resignation after looking into the reasons he gave while Joehari wants to concentrate on his task as the vice president of FAM (Football Association), where he also holds various posts.
“We respect their decisions,” he said while adding that, to his knowledge, there was no more resignation in the association.
Meanwhile, Reggie said that Safa hade submitted their entries for the Malaysia League campaign 2019, President Cup (under-21) and Youth Cup (under-19), although there were several technical issues need to be addressed.
He expected all would be settled before mid-December as Safa look to better prepare for new campaign.