KUALA LUMPUR: The poor standard of refereeing which sparked a controversy in the 2018 Malaysia Cup final saw Terengganu FC coach Irfan Bakti Abu Salim welcoming the establishment of the Professional Match Officials Malaysia (PMOM).
From the view of a coach, Irfan Bakti said the setting up of an independent body was timely apart from being a paradigm shift to raise the quality of football refereeing in Malaysia.
According to him, the effort of Malaysia Football League (MFL) and the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) will pave the way to address the problems faced by referees who have significant influence on the standard of the Malaysian League.
“It is a good idea as they do not have to worry about various problems, among them on the progress of a match. After this, they can concentrate fully on their job.
“When referees are from an independent body, they would be protected from external interference and lift the standard of the league to a higher level,” he said when contacted by Bernama today.
The idea of setting PMOM by MFL and FAM was sparked off after the two national football entities held a meeting with the English Premier League professional football referee governing body, Professional Game Match Officials (PGMOL) in London recently. – Bernama
