Despite having a good track record, playing a vital role in the privatization process of the state football associations (FA) to their current guise as football clubs (FC), vice-presidential candidate in the upcoming Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) Congress, Mohd Firdaus Mohamed, does not regard himself as favourite in the VP race.
Instead, the President of the Malay Football Association Malaysia regards himself as an underdog and prefers to let his ‘work’ do all the talking for him throughout his tenure as the Chairman of the Special Committee of FAM.
Not many were aware that Firdaus was given a heavy responsibility by FAM President, Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin to lead the privatization process in 2019, which only took two years for Firdaus to complete, just in time for the start of the 2021 season.
This achievement was even heralded as ‘historic’ by FAM Secretary General, Stuart Ramalingam, with many having given up hope of ever realizing it since a directive was issued by the world body, FIFA in 2014.
“Actually, I received this mandate in 2019 by the president to complete the privatization process, in line with the directive issued by FIFA seven years ago.
“When I received this mandate, many people looked at me cynically, they doubted me:” In seven years we couldn’t do it, how sure you can do it?.
“To be honest, it was not easy for me to accomplish the given task, but I took it as a challenge instead and I made sure that I have fulfilled the trust given by the President. Alhamdulillah, with Allah’s permission and my hard working team, we managed to complete it before the start of this season, “said the humble businessman.
For Firdaus, he hopes that the delegates to judge me on his ‘track record’ so far and more importantly, a healthy competition among all the five candidates who are vying for the four Presidential seats.
“All candidates have their own strengths. We all have equal opportunities, hence it’s important for us the five of us to have a healthy competition.
“I do not know the extent of the delegates’ response to my nomination. “I will just leave it to them to evaluate my performance based on the track record they have,” added the former Exco member who served between 2017-2021.
In the FAM Executive Committee election for the 2021-2025 term, Firdaus faced stiff competition from two ‘heavyweight’ candidates, incumbent Datuk Haji Rosmadi Ismail and Mohd Joehari Mohd Ayub. Apart from that, he will also be facing tycoons such as the President of the Sarawak Football Association, Dato ‘Posa Haji Majais and the former Vice President, Dato’ Sri Haji Afandi Hamzah
