KUALA LUMPUR — The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) will require the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) to submit quarterly progress reports for the next two years as part of efforts to ensure the implementation of governance reforms recommended in a recent audit.
AFC secretary-general Datuk Seri Windsor Paul John said the reporting mechanism would begin after FAM elects its new leadership in September, allowing the continental body to closely track the association’s reform process.
Speaking in Scoop’s soon-to-be-released Sport Check podcast episode, Windsor said the quarterly reports would serve as a key monitoring tool to ensure FAM follows through on the recommendations contained in the AFC-led audit.
“Every quarter they have to report to us. Once the exco is in place and the president is in place, every quarter they have to give us a report on what changes they are making, what has been done and all those things,” he said.
The audit, which was presented during FAM’s extraordinary congress last week, identified several areas requiring improvement and included a series of recommendations aimed at strengthening the national body’s governance and administrative structures.
Windsor said the AFC had given FAM a two-year timeframe to implement the reforms, acknowledging that some of the changes would require approval through congress and other internal processes.
“We know that there are a lot of changes because some have to go through congress and some have to go through a lot of processes. That’s why we have given them two years from the time their new leadership is elected in September,” he said.
“We’ll give them two years to make changes to all those areas and to implement the reforms.”
He stressed that the reforms are not mere recommendations that can be ignored, noting that FAM had requested the audit and must commit to carrying out the necessary changes.
“There is no choice. FAM has no choice but to implement. It’s not like we’re giving them an option. They agreed to it and they asked for the audit anyway,” he said.
“They have committed themselves to ensuring that the reforms will be implemented. This is their promise to us.”
Windsor said the quarterly reporting process would allow AFC to continuously assess FAM’s progress and ensure the reform agenda remains on track throughout the implementation period.
The AFC-led audit was commissioned following a request from FAM and FIFA in the aftermath of the heritage player controversy, with the objective of assessing the association’s governance framework and identifying areas requiring improvement.
FAM’s new president and executive committee will be elected during the association’s elections in September, after which the two-year reform and monitoring period is expected to begin. – June 9, 2026