KUALA LUMPUR, May 16 — A total of 147 players from five clubs in the country that have gone bankrupt will receive the assistance of between USD1,227.67 (about RM5,000) to USD9,227.67 (about RM38,000) from the International Football Federation (FIFA).
Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) secretary-general Stuart Ramalingam in a statement yesterday said a total of US$456,214.48 (approximately RM1.88 million) had been approved for players from five teams in Malaysia for the first phase, involving salary arrears from July 2015 to June 2020.
He said the amount represented 2.85 per cent of the US$16 million (RM66 million) fund provided by FIFA to players around the world in four phases until the end of 2022.
According to Stuart, FIFA through the ‘FIFA Fund for Football Players’ (FIFA FFP) programme created in 2020 in collaboration with the International Federation of Professional Footballers (FIFPro), received applications from more than 1,000 players worldwide involving 109 clubs from 36 member countries.
He said the applications from Malaysia made through the Professional Footballers Association of Malaysia (PFAM) in collaboration with FAM’s Legal Unit, which submitted the decisions on salary arrears cases from the FAM Status Committee as well as cases that had been decided by FIFA.
“FAM also provided confirmation of the status of the teams or clubs involved which have been officially closed. FAM is thankful to FIFA and FIFPro because the funds have helped players affected by salary arrears that could not be settled by the clubs that have closed down.
“The same goes for PFAM, which has played a key role in realising this agenda to enable the players to eventually be able to receive part of their owed salaries,” he said.
Stuart, however, stressed that the receipt of the funds did not mean that the salary arrears cases involving the players were settled, as there was still the balance of arrears to be resolved.
“Therefore, FAM calls on the responsible parties to come forward and resolve the remaining arrears. At this point, PFAM is checking and updating the facts of approvals from FIFA and FIFPro, and will issue a statement soon,” he said.
He explained that FIFA will credit the funds to the respective players’ accounts immediately upon receipt of their bank account information.
— Bernama
