Sacked coach Norizan Bakar has hit out at his dismissal as Malaysia's Cabinet ordered the embattled soccer association to explain the "national disaster" at the Asian Cup.
Norizan said he should not be blamed for Malaysia's triple defeats, capped by a 2-0 loss to Iran, which follow more than 20 years of decline in the country.
Malaysia were earlier hammered 5-1 and 5-0 by China and Uzbekistan, prompting the Football Association of Malaysia's (FAM) deputy president and two independent council members to quit.
"I think it's unfair. I've tried to do my level best with the talent that Malaysia has," an irate Norizan said.
"As you know I'm a teacher. I don't think that when a student fails I have to stop teaching," he said.
"There have to now be solutions to the problems. There were problems related to our preparation and these problems always need to be solved," he said.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet ordered the FAM to submit a report on the Asian Cup fiasco.
"Most of the Cabinet members are utterly disappointed by what has happened with the national team," Malaysian Sports Minister Azalina Othman Said told the New Straits Times newspaper.
"FAM's failure is a national disaster and it shouldn't be this way. FAM must tell us what the problem is and the government is ready to help," she said.
Soccer is one of the country's eight core sports, meaning the government funds its development from the grassroots, she added.
"But instead of getting better, soccer is going from bad to worse. Most of the ministers are very upset, the same as many Malaysians who have voiced their disappointment," she said.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later