Former chief speaks out on crisis facing FAS
KUCHING: Former Football Association of Sarawak ( FAS) president Datu Sudarsono Osman has expressed his concern over the association’s failure to get a licence for the Crocs to play in the Malaysian League next season.
In a statement posted in the SarawakCrocs Facebook page, he delved into various issues on the management of the state professional footbal l team including those raised by the current FAS leadership.
At a press conference last Saturday FAS had announced that Sarawak is denied the licence to play in next season’s Malaysian League due mainly to failure to meet financial requirements set by the Football Association of Malaysia ( FAM). It was revealed that FAS was indebted to Social Security Organisation ( Socso) , Employees Provident Fund ( EPF) and Inland Revenue Board (IRB).
FAS president Dato Posa Majais told reporters, “Some of the things are beyond us and involved the previous management.”
When pressed on how to resolve the crisis by FAM’s Oct 16 deadline, Posa replied that the previous FAS management must submit a detailed audit report. “They must complete the audit report for us to submit to KL, we really seek their cooperation, if they love Sarawak football,” he added. Sudarsono, who helmed FAS from 2009 to 2016, said his management team spent seven years to put FAS and Sarawak footbal l on a good footing. “We did proper handing over of duties from the former Exco to the new one in a meeting on Sept 23, 2016. Several meetings also followed up to ensure the smooth transition of the management and proper team preparation for the following season. Of course taking over an organisation means taking over the assets, if any, and its liabilities,” he recalled.
Managing football, he added, is never easy.
“T he mana gement wi l l continuously face multiple challenges and issues ranging from team performances, team harmony, players, supporters and finances. But all these challenges are the norms in professional football management and they all need to be tackled head on. You can’t avoid them,” he continued.
“The last thing you can do is to blame others for your situations. If anyone ever think that managing a professional football team is a walk in the park then that someone doesn’t know football. In my opinion, most important for now, the management and the team need to stay focused on winning the next home game in order to retain our status playing in the super league next season.”
The Crocs are currently lying in 10th spot among the 12 teams in the Super League with one remaining match to play. The bottom two teams at the end of the season will be relegated to the second-tier Premier League.
“Voici ng your int e rna l management problems will not help to build the players trust in the management,” Sudarsono advised.
“If players lose faith in the management we will risk losing all our local talents in which we have invested time, money and efforts,” he added.
We did proper handing over of duties from the former Exco to the new one in a meeting on Sept 23, 2016. Several meetings also followed up to ensure the smooth transition of the management and proper team preparation for the following season. Of course taking over an organisation means taking over the assets, if any, and its liabilities. Datu Sudarsono Osman, Former Football Association of Sarawak (FAS) president