Rajagobal let off the hook

National head coach Datuk K. Rajagobal was let off the hook by the Football Association of Malaysia's (FAM) Disciplinary Committee after finding no evidence that he had violated FAM's Article 88, as claimed.

FAM Disciplinary Committee chairman Datuk Taufik Abdul Razak said the committee had decided not to charge Rajagobal after carefully analysing the video of the post-match press conference by the 56-year-old coach.

"After listening to the recording of the post-match press conference, we decided to drop the charge against Rajagopal as he did not make such a statement.

"Maybe his (Rajagobal) assessment and comments of the match was misconstrued by the media. There was no mention of the FAM policy throughout his comments," said Taufik after emerging from a three-hour Disciplinary Committee meeting at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya, here, Wednesday.

Rajagobal who does not mince his words when asked to comment on the performance of his team, was said to have blamed the situation on the presence of foreign professionals and the FAM allegedly construed that as criticising the national league.

Rajagobal landed himself in hot soup after the FAM decided to charge him for allegedly blaming the presence of foreign imports for the lack of prolific local strikers in the M-League, after the national team's 1-4 lost to Saudi Arabia in a friendly on March 17.

Under the infamous Article 88, only the FAM president and general-secretary can comment on policy matters, including the involvement of the national team, to the media.

Taufik said the committee had however, reminded Rajagobal to be careful when issuing statements to the press, to avoid a similar occurrence.

"Based on FIFA's rules and regulations, any coach can speak to the media on the team's performance after a match but in the case of Rajagobal, we were focusing on whether his comments had violated FAM's policy or not...that's all," he said.

Meanwhile, the Disciplinary Committee suspended two players from Selangor, namely Mohd Afiq Azmi and Abdul Shukur Jusoh for two matches each for their involvement in a scuffle during their FA Cup match against Armed Forces at the Shah Alam Stadium on Jan 25.

Both players who pleaded guilty were also fined RM1,000 and RM2,000, respectively for not heeding the directive of match officials.