Malaysia’s coach must apologize for the disastrous performance at the Asian Cup finals

Coach Addie Azwan Zainal has expressed regret after Malaysia’s poor performance in the Futsal Asian Cup finals, ending at the bottom of Group D with three defeats.

Malaysia officially exited the tournament after a 1-6 loss to Saudi Arabia at the Jakarta International Velodrome. Earlier, they were defeated 1-4 by Iran and suffered a heavy 0-7 loss to Afghanistan, once again failing to advance to the quarterfinals.

In total, Malaysia managed to score only 2 goals while conceding 17 throughout the competition. Despite the poor results, Coach Addie believes the team’s performance was not entirely “disastrous,” attributing the main issue to finishing ability.

“First of all, I want to thank everyone for giving me the chance to lead the national team”, Addie stated. “Secondly, I apologize for our performance. Saying it was terrible might not be entirely accurate… maybe I am the one who has not fulfilled my responsibilities.”

“I apologize on behalf of the entire team for not delivering better results. Perhaps we were unlucky this year, but I hope better days are ahead. I urge all Malaysian futsal supporters not to give up on backing the national team and the future development of futsal”, he added.

This campaign marked Malaysia’s first return to the Asian Futsal Cup since 2018. However, the team has never advanced beyond the group stage in their 12 appearances since 1999.

Coach Addie called for fans to remain patient ahead of the Southeast Asian Futsal Championship, scheduled to be held in Thailand in April.

“Our journey is still long, and in reality, the team is making progress”, he further commented. “We qualified for the Asian Cup and won the SEA Games bronze medal last year in Thailand. Although the results in Jakarta were disappointing, the players gained valuable experience”.

The futsal results at the Asian Futsal Cup finals deal another severe blow to the faith of football fans in Malaysia. Fans were already frustrated with the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) following the illegal naturalization of seven players.

This incident led FIFA to intervene and impose heavy sanctions. Under pressure, many officials within the FAM leadership resigned, creating an unprecedented crisis within Malaysian football.