Sacking Vingada will not change performance of national squad

The performance of the national football squad in international matches will not change drastically even if its coach Nelo Vingada was sacked following his failure to bring victory to the national team after taking charge of the squad.

Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) president Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim said the biggest problem with the national squad now was the lack of winning mentality among players which is the most tedious element in transforming the strength of the team.

"If Vingada is sacked, you will still have the same problem.

"The reality is when setting up the club (JDT), we needed two to three years to instill the winning mentality.

"So what do you expect from us in two to three months,?" he said when answering questions from a panel at a dialogue session at JDT Cafe here last night.

He was replying to calls by certain parties who wanted Vingada to be sacked as manager and chief coach following a series of losses in important matches especially in the 2019 Asian Cup Qualifying.

Yesterday, Harimau Malaysia lost 0-2 to Hong Kong in a return qualifying match.

The national team also lost to Lebanon and Hong Kong in the earlier matches.

The dialogue session featured several panel members including sports commentator Abu Bakar Atan, Tabah Syazwan of Media Prima Berhad and Vijhay Vick of FourFourTwo as well as Ooi Kin Fai of Goal.com representing local football fans.

-- BERNAMA