KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 2 — The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) today issued an apology, explaining that it had no intention of taking credit for the national Under-15 squad’s win against Australia in Chonburi, Thailand yesterday.

In a statement posted on FAM’s Facebook page today, FAM secretary-general Stuart Ramalingam said the association’s statement issued yesterday on the site did not intend to claim that the win by the charges of coach P. Maniam in the AFF U-15 Championship 2019 yesterday was the immediate result of the Malaysian Football DNA guideline launched on July 9.

Ramalingam said the statement had meant to convey the message that the win yesterday as well as the good performance by the squad beginning with the Jockey Club International Youth Invitational Football Tournament 2019 in Hong Kong in April, followed by their emergence as champions of the CFA Team China International Youth Football Tournament Haikou 2019, all went to show that “it was on a good platform in line with the aspirations of the Malaysian Football DNA guideline”, which reflects the national football philosophy including a uniform coaching system.

He also said the previous statement had been removed from the site, and hoped there would be no further contention on the issue of credit-taking and that instead, all parties would give their joint support for the continued success of the U-15 squad in the remaining two Group B matches as part of the qualifiers for the semi-finals.

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The squad, who face Laos tomorrow and hosts Thailand on Monday, have won all their three matches so far to lead the group with nine points.

Malaysia last emerged champions of the AFF U-15 Championship in 2013 in Myanmar, defeating Indonesia in the final.

In his clarification, the secretary-general said the U-15 squad’s achievements were an indicator that the National Football Development Programme (NFDP) initiated in December last year, jointly by the Youth and Sports Ministry, FAM and the National Sports Council, was progressing well.

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He also took the opportunity to express the association’s gratitude to the initiators of the NFDP as well as the Mokhtar Dahari Academy in Gambang, Pahang for their support. — Bernama