Hush hush, Sathia’s not telling where he’s going next

PETALING JAYA: Former national team coach B. Sathianathan (pic) is keeping his next coaching venture a secret.

The 60-year-old shockingly quit Felda United last month after guiding them to Premier League success and promotion to the topflight Super League for the 2019 season.

Sathianathan has been playing down rumours about his next employer and said an announcement will be made soon.

“I’ve been receiving offers but I can’t make any comments on it now and will have to wait for the team management to make an official announcement soon,” said Sathianathan told Starsport yesterday.

Talk is rife that the seasoned coach is the perfect candidate for the Selangor hotseat.

Sathianathan, who is also the Football Coaches Association of Malaysia (FCAM) president, has just returned from the Alliance of European Football Coaches Associations (AEFCA) Symposium in Antalya, Turkey (Nov 8-11) and a short trip to London to observe the youth coaching of Queen’s Park Rangers.

The symposium featured several top speakers including former Liverpool coach Gerard Houllier, Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic and the English Football Association’s head of development coaching Matt Crocker.

Sathianathan added that the FCAM would work hand in hand with Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) technical director Peter De Roo in the national body’s 12-year F30 roadmap.

“The coaching symposium was an avenue for me to update my coaching knowledge. For me, coaching is always developing and moving forward. This trip also enabled the FCAM to build contact with the AEFCA.

“A symposium like this will add value to local coaches and I hope more of our coaches will attend it in the future.

“The local coaches need to see this is an investment to improve themselves with the latest knowledge,” said Sathianathan.