KUALA LUMPUR – The extensive governance audit conducted by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) would have cost an estimated US$2 million (RM8.5 million) had it been carried out by an external auditing firm, says AFC secretary-general Datuk Seri Windsor Paul John.
Windsor revealed the scale of the exercise, saying the review went far beyond AFC’s normal scope of work and required significant manpower over a three-month period.
Speaking in Scoop’s Sport Check episode, he said the confederation assigned a team of staff members to conduct a comprehensive assessment of FAM’s governance, administration and operational structures following the fallout from the heritage player controversy.
“FAM’s audit was even beyond our scope of work. It’s not normal for me to have 12 staff sitting there for three months,” he said.
“It’s not fair to my staff because they didn’t sign up for this. They have their own job descriptions. But because it was a request, and because of the circumstances surrounding FAM, FIFA asked my team to help FAM, to see what they needed, help turn things around and rebuild their image.”
According to Windsor, AFC personnel were involved in a detailed examination of the association, spending months interviewing staff, reviewing procedures, and scrutinising documents.
“Every day my staff were there, not only interviewing staff and talking to them, but also going through all those documents, which is not their normal job,” he said.
Windsor said the scale of the work reflected the seriousness of the situation and the confederation’s commitment to helping one of its member associations address fundamental governance shortcomings.
“If I had given it to an audit company to do it, it would have cost two million dollars. This was done free,” he said.
“Of course, we cannot charge our member association.”
The audit was commissioned after FAM formally requested assistance from AFC and FIFA in the aftermath of the heritage player case, which resulted in sanctions against the national association and drew international scrutiny.
Windsor said the project evolved into a much broader exercise than a conventional audit, encompassing not only an assessment of FAM’s existing structures but also recommendations on how the organisation could modernise and improve.
“It was a whole package that we had to do, and that took a lot of man-hours,” he said.
The findings were presented during FAM’s extraordinary congress last week, with the report identifying weaknesses across several areas of governance and administration.
Among the key recommendations were strengthening governance structures through clearer checks and balances, improving financial oversight and compliance mechanisms, enhancing the role of committees, increasing professional staffing capacity, and broadening stakeholder participation in football governance.
The audit also recommended modernising decision-making processes, improving accountability measures and incorporating professional clubs into FAM’s membership structure in line with international football governance standards.
For Windsor, the exercise demonstrated AFC’s responsibility towards its member associations, particularly when significant governance concerns arise.
“We are obliged to help our member associations. AFC and FIFA are only as strong as their weakest member. If we have weak members, then we will be weak. We need to make our members stronger so they can develop football in the region,” he said. – June 12 , 2026