Bring fresh faces into Sabah football, says former star striker

Matlan Marjan, the first Sabahan to captain Malaysia, calls for 'old hands' to make way for new blood in Sabah Football Association.

KOTA KINABALU: Former national and Sabah striker Matlan Marjan has called for new faces to fill the vacancies during the Sabah Football Association’s (Safa) annual congress this August.

At the same time, Matlan, who won the FA Cup with Sabah in 1995, threw his support behind Deputy Home Minister Aziz Jamman, saying he was the perfect candidate to lead Safa.

“I fully support what Safa has done, that is to enable an election to fill the vacancies left by former president Musa Aman, his deputy Lawrence Gimbang and others.

“I urge Safa at the district level to nominate those who are aligned with the government to ensure it will be smoother to plan and manage the direction the state’s football should take,” he said.

Matlan also named incumbent Safa secretary-general Alijus Sipil and Hamid Apdal as the two potential deputy presidents.

He said he was voicing his opinion after learning of the difficulties endured by the state’s football body following the 14th general election (GE14).

“I was made to understand that the funding for football was halted for a while after the general election because the past management depended on government-linked companies (GLCs).

“It is high time new ideas were brought into Safa for the good of football in the state,” he said, adding it was of no use to conduct elections if the same old faces were retained to spearhead the association.

“We do appreciate the contributions of past Safa leaders but it is time they made way and gave others a chance to lead,” Matlan said. -FMT