KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) have made it clear that it is up to them to decide on the future of Terry Walsh, not the National Sports Council (NSC) as previously reported.
MHC president Datuk Seri Subahan Kamal said Walsh, a technical director, is contracted with the national body.
"Walsh does not have any contract with NSC. The agreement is only between him and MHC," said Subahan.
"NSC only subsidises his salary to lessen the burden (of MHC) and this was agreed to by former Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.
"Khairy said his party, via NSC, would pay a large portion of the salary while the rest would be covered by us (MHC). But that does not mean the council have the power to fire or appoint him.
"At the moment it is up to them (NSC) to decide whether to continue with the subsidy based on our result at the ongoing Indonesia Asian Games.
"We will request it (subsidy) again if we succeed at the Asian Games but if we fail, I myself will find a solution on how we will cover the expenses."
Walsh's future is in doubt after several former national coaches revealed that they did not see any impact following his appointment late 2015.
Subahan hopes the concerned parties will not prolong this issue.
"I have two key performance indicators, the first (qualifying for 2018 World Cup) has already been achieved,” said Subahan.
"The second is that we qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. If we fail, April (in 2019) will be my last month with MHC.
"It won't be just me, Walsh will also have to go."
Meanwhile, Subahan admitted that he was shocked by the statement made by Iman Gobinathan, who is currently coaching Bangladesh at the Asian Games. The latter said he is keen on returning to coach Malaysia.
"I was quite shocked with Gobinathan's statement. As head coach, he has been given the responsibility of guiding Bangladesh and should be focused on leading his team to success instead of begging to come back to Malaysia,” a furious Subahan added.