KUALA LUMPUR: The FA of Malaysia (FAM) have defended their selection of S. Logeswaran as the referee for the Malaysia Cup final, which Johor Darul Ta'zim (JDT) won after defeating Terengganu FC 3-1 at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Friday (December 8).
FAM secretary-general, Datuk Noor Azman Rahman, said the selection of Logeswaran of Selangor was made after getting the approval of the FAM Referees Committee by taking into account that he had performed admirably throughout this season's Malaysia League (M-League) campaign.
He said Logeswaran was also chosen because of his status as a neutral referee.
"Logeswaran is among the senior referees in the M-League and he is also a Category A national referee," he said in a statement today (December 11).
According to Noor Azman, the selection of Logeswaran was also influenced by FAM's constraints to appoint six local match officials with the status of International Football Federation (Fifa) referees.
"Razlan Joffri Ali and Kamil Zakaria are Terengganu-born referees; Tuan Yaasin Tuan Hanafiah is a Johor-registered referee while Usaid Jamal, who has just started his duty in Melaka, used to be registered in Johor, thus they could not be appointed as referees have to be neutral.
"As for the remaining two Fifa referees, Suhaizi Shukri of Kedah had an AFC (Asian Football Confederation) Cup assignment while Penang's Nazmi Nasaruddin was overseas for refereeing duties," he said.
Meanwhile, regarding several contentious decisions during the final, including awarding two penalties each to JDT and Terengganu, Noor Azman said all the decisions were proven right after reviewing the video recordings.
He also said that FAM never received any information about the so-called Fifa Referees Committee chairman Pierluigi Collina reprimanding the quality of refereeing in the 2023 Malaysia Cup final and that the report, which went viral on social media, was fake news. — Bernama
