Without accountability, AFC audit leaves more questions than answers

AFC officials insist their work on the doctored documents case is complete, but football fans will be disappointed if the full audit fails to reveal who was responsible for the scandal that rocked the nation.

PETALING JAYA: The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) says its audit of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), presented to the national body’s Congress on June 4, is merely the tip of the iceberg.

However, if the full audit fails to identify those behind the doctored document scandal that prompted FAM to invite the AFC to review its operations and recommend improvements, it risks leaving a stain on the regional body’s reputation.

The damning audit exposed serious shortcomings within the national body, including its failure to present a budget for the past 10 years.

Yet, conspicuously absent from the report was any conclusion on the doctored document scandal that saw seven national players granted Malaysian citizenship to represent Harimau Malaya.

For many football fans, governance failures and financial shortcomings are only part of the story.

The bigger question remains: who was responsible for the documentation fiasco that led to sanctions and damaged Malaysian football’s credibility?

The AFC itself described its findings as merely the “tip of the iceberg”. If that is the case, supporters will expect the full audit to deliver accountability, not merely identify administrative weaknesses.

Judging by the responses at the press conference after FAM’s extraordinary congress, however, that may not happen.

When asked about the status of the investigation, including the police report lodged by FAM in December, AFC secretary-general Datuk Seri Windsor Paul John said: “If police, you have to ask them. With Fifa, you have to ask them. We have taken our decision at AFC level. It has finished for us at AFC.

“So, for any other agencies, then you have to ask them what is happening.”

AFC stepped in to conduct the audit after FAM’s previous exco quit on Jan 28 following the doctored documents scandal.

Windsor’s deputy, Vahid Kardany, who led the audit, appeared equally reluctant to revisit the issue.

“I think something that is done and dusted is in the past. Forget about it,” he said.

“Move forward and think about the future, and not let it happen again. This is very important.”

While preventing a repeat of the scandal is undoubtedly important, moving on without establishing responsibility risks leaving one of the biggest questions in Malaysian football unanswered.

Former FAM president Tan Sri Mohd Hamidi Amin, now an honorary president, was also quick to shut down discussion about the infamous seven.

“For the time being today, I don’t want to answer. When the right time, FAM will answer. We will wait for the new president and executive committee to come in.”

FAM will elect a new president and executive committee in September, with Hamidin a likely candidate.

Whether answers emerge before then remains to be seen.

But if the AFC’s much-publicised audit ultimately fails to identify those responsible for the doctored documents scandal, many will wonder whether it truly got to the bottom of the iceberg it claims to have uncovered.