Appointment of Mario Gomez as national coach in limbo - TMJ

Lack of funds and demand for high salary has thrown a spanner in the appointment of former Johor Darul Ta'zim (JDT) head coach Mario Gomez as the National head.

Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) president Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim said Gomez has yet to accept the post because the FAM would not be able to match his request for salary since his demand is high.

"Mario has not made a decision about accepting the post or not. After his appointment 10 days ago, he met me and spoke about his salary. He is asking for a higher salary that what we paid him when he was coaching JDT.

"To me this is the National team and we may not be in a position to fulfill his demand. This is not JDT. So I offered him an amount and he said he would need to think it over.

"He is asking for a higher salary but we cannot offer him the amount because we too do not have money. Therefore we might not even employ him," said TMJ after meeting chief editors and sports editors at Bangunan Sultan Ibrahim, here today.

The Argentine had left JDT two days before the Charity Shield match between JDT and Kedah in January.

Tunku Ismail had on March 25, after being elected as the FAM president at FAM's 53rd Congress, announced that Gomez would take over the post of National head coach from Datuk Ong Kim Swee.

Kim Swee was given the task to handle the National Under-23 squad.

After his appointment, Gomez picked Kedah head coach Tan Cheng Hoe as his assistant together with Raul Longhi (JDT assistant coach) and former National goalkeeper Azmin Azram Abdul Aziz as the goalkeeper coach.

-- BERNAMA