KUALA LUMPUR: Terengganu's Amir Amri Mohamad has been elected as the new Malaysia Rugby (MR) president for the 2023-2027 term.
Amir defeated Datuk Seri Zainal Abidin Rafique 27-11 in a straight fight at the MR annual general meeting-cum-elections today after Labuan president Abdul Rashid Adlie withdrew from the competition to focus on the vice president contest.
Former national player Azmir Zanul Abdin won the deputy president's post uncontested.
The AGM was held at the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) building.
The two vice president slots were won by Abdul Rashid (22) and former national team assistant manager Syamsul Erwin Lagis (29) who defeated Mohsin Surin (13) and Raimi Yusof (12).
Amir was previously MR deputy president for the 2019-2023 term and was vice president for the 2016-2019 term. He has been the Terengganu president since 2016.
The 49-year-old said he is determined to help the national body overcome the issues it has been facing and also realise the plans laid out during Datuk Shahrul Zaman Yahya's leadership.
Shahrul, who led MR for two terms (2016-2023), decided it was time to make way for new leadership.
"As we saw, many new faces were elected today so I honestly did not expect to win," said Amir.
"I feel that I have a responsibility to fix what issues we have been facing, everyone is aware of these issues.
"We will be transparent and not hide anything.
"I want to revive the reputation of the association and also try to achieve whatever plans we had laid out previously.
"This includes having our own stadium to call home as well as improving the standard of refereeing in the country."
In November last year, MR was shocked to discover that a substantial amount of money had been siphoned off their bank account by an administration staff member, who had forged the signatures of the president and the treasurer.
Several sources claimed that the losses exceeded RM1 million.
Malaysia Rugby office bearers 2023-2027
President: Amir Amri Mohamad
Deptuy president: Azmir Zanul Abdin
Vice president: Syamsul Erwin Lagis, Abdul Rashid Adlie
Exco members: Nik Ramadhan Nik Abdullah, Hazeline Aasyiqueen Jaafar, Faeez Mohamad Alias, Hamrizal Hamdan, Shahizam Tukiran, Supt. Najib Hamzah