KUALA NERUS: Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) president Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin has spoken out in defence of the governing body on the issue of the availability of the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil ahead of the 2026 World Cup/2027 Asian Cup Qualifiers in November.
This arose following the timing of British band Coldplay’s concert at the National Stadium on Nov 22 and the national team’s match which may take place a day earlier at the same venue.
Hamidin said FAM and the Malaysian Stadium Corporation (PSM) are still bound by contract in the period of the agreement which deems the National Stadium as the official stadium of the Harimau Malaya.
“I have to state that FAM and PSM do have a contract running from previously until now, not an MoU (memorandum of understanding). Hopefully, this will be resolved when the schedule (qualifying round) comes out in July.
“Our contract (with PSM) stipulates that the official venue of Harimau Malaya is (the National Stadium) in Bukit Jalil. There may be a misunderstanding, so we will ensure that this does not happen again,” he said at the town hall session with the FAM president here last night.
He said this when answering the moderator’s question as to whether the concert date would disrupt the schedule of the Kim Pan Gon-led national team.
In March 2021, FAM and PSM extended a joint agreement that would see the National Stadium continue to be the ‘Home of Harimau Malaya’ until Dec 31, 2025.
Hamidin had previously stated that he would not allow Coldplay’s concert at the National Stadium to interfere with the Harimau Malaya’s match which may take place one day before, taking into account the time-consuming logistics in preparation for the concert.
However, the Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS) gave an assurance that the organisation of the concert and the national team’s match would run smoothly.
On Jan 7, tens of thousands of national football fans were left disgruntled after 21,000 seats at the National Stadium had to be ‘vacated’ ahead of the first semi-final of the 2022 ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Cup match between Malaysia and Thailand.
The seats were vacated to make way for the structural installation of a stage for an international concert taking place on Jan 15. - Bernama
