KUALA LUMPUR: The national Under-16 (U-16) squad will continue with their challenge in the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Under-16 Championship in Surabaya, Indonesia despite being on the receiving end of threats, criticisms and abuse from local fans, as the FA of Malaysia (FAM) have decided not to pull the team out from competition.
This matter was confirmed by FAM secretary general Stuart Ramalingam who is satisfied with the level of security provided by the hosts.
"Our Malaysian team have been given added security with three patrol cars and five outriders escorting them. With security tightened, our team there should have no problems apart from the issue of being in the stadium where there are Indonesian fans such as when Malaysia played Thailand, and it was somewhat out of the ordinary having another team’s supporters coming to the stadium.
"I am satisfied with the security measures in place and the cooperation extended by the All Indonesia Football Association (PSSI) and the AFF so we will let them conduct the match after this.
"We will not be withdrawing for the time being and we did not discuss this matter with the AFF,” said Stuart when met at the seminar on the importance of physiotherapy in football organised by the Malaysian Malays Football Association and Physiotherapy earlier today (Thursday).
Controversy descended on the championship which is currently being held in Surabaya after Indonesian fans chanted profanities such as ‘Malaysia are dogs’ and ‘Amirul is a dog’ when the national team were playing Thailand in their first Group B match at the Gelora Joko Samudro Stadium on Monday.
Such a deplorable act by the Indonesian fans came about following national player Amirul Ashrafiq Hanifah being accused of insulting the Indonesian flag by displaying it upside down in an Instagram post of his when giving a short speech just before leaving for Surabaya.
However, Amirul has made an open apology and explained that it was not an act of provocation, but instead an honest mistake of putting up a Poland flag instead.
Following the incident, FAM have already sent a letter of complaint to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the AFF for stern action to be taken.
"The letter of complaint has been sent but we have not received a response as yet. FAM have also sent over Exco member ACP Md Dali Wahid as a security officer to oversee and come up with a safety plan for our young team over there,” explained Stuart.
The national Under-16 squad under Raja Azlan Shah Raja So’ib are expected to take to the field for the second group match against Brunei at the same stadium where the incident happened, and are chasing after their first win after losing 1-2 to Thailand in the earlier match.