President of the Malaysian Football Federation resigns amid doubts about the origin of naturalized players; Reason why coach Kim Sang-sik called Tran Thanh Trung for U23 Vietnam
The President of the Malaysian Football Federation resigns due to doubts about the origin of naturalized players; The reason why coach Kim Sang-sik called Tran Thanh Trung to play for U23 Vietnam; MU's terrible performance makes boxer Tyson Fury stop watching football... are notable sports news in the past 24 hours.
Malaysian Football Federation President Resigns Over Doubts About Naturalized Players' Origin
Malaysian media reported that the President of the Malaysian Football Association (FAM), Datuk Joehari Ayub, has submitted his resignation due to health reasons.
Football Association of Malaysia President Datuk Joehari Ayub suddenly submitted his resignation.
Datuk Joehari Ayub resigned last Friday due to health reasons, the New Straits Times reported. “Datuk Joehari Ayub has been absent from most of the FAM events and group photos recently,” the leading Malaysian daily added.
The resignation of Datuk Joehari Ayub was called a “shock” by the Malaysian press, as he had not been in the FAM presidency for long. Datuk Joehari Ayub assumed the position in February this year. His term is expected to last until 2029.
From the beginning, he attracted attention with a large-scale player naturalization campaign. This policy helped the Malaysian team become significantly stronger, typically with a 4-0 victory over the Vietnamese team in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers. However, it also led to fierce controversy about publicly revealing the origins of naturalized players, creating an undercurrent within FAM.
Most recently, the case of midfielder Facundo Garces caused a lot of controversy. In an interview with the Spanish press, Facundo Garces calmly replied that his Malaysian ancestry came from... his great-grandfather. However, if Facundo Garces naturalized in this way, FAM would have broken the law. The midfielder quickly explained on his personal page that it was just a translation error, he has Malaysian blood from his grandfather.
FAM has so far chosen to remain silent.
An angry fan said: “No wind, no storm… but he resigned… he just took office not long ago. We want FAM to explain. Malaysian football belongs to the people, FAM cannot remain silent forever.”
Also according to Malaysian media, the person who will likely replace President Datuk Joehari Ayub in the new leadership role of FAM is Vice President Datuk Yusoff Mahadi.
The reason why coach Kim Sang-sik called Tran Thanh Trung for U23 Vietnam
The Korean coach explained the reason for including Tran Thanh Trung in the list of U23 Vietnam players preparing for the 2026 U23 Asia qualifiers taking place in Phu Tho.
"We and our team always closely monitor and analyze the expertise of players playing abroad. Thanh Trung is one of the players being monitored. I will evaluate him more carefully in the next training session. We have carefully evaluated the players' abilities before they are called up. I hope U23 Vietnam continues to have good results," said coach Kim Sang-sik.
Previously, Tran Thanh Trung and Victor Le were two overseas Vietnamese players that coach Kim Sang-sik included in the list of 24 U23 Vietnam players preparing for the U23 Asia qualifiers, taking place in Phu Tho in September. However, the new player of Ninh Binh Club received more attention, because this midfielder had just returned to play in the V-League from Bulgaria. In particular, Tran Thanh Trung's mark at the new club was not much, so the fact that this player was named in the U23 Vietnam list caused many surprises.
In the 2026 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers of Group C, VFF has LPBank as its main sponsor. The three opponents of the Southeast Asian U23 champion include Yemen, Singapore and Bangladesh. Group C matches will take place at Viet Tri Stadium (Phu Tho) from September 3 to September 9.
After announcing the 24 players of the U23 Vietnam team, coach Kim Sang-sik expressed his hope that his players will continue to receive support from the large number of Vietnamese fans. The Korean coach emphasized that this is the inspiration to help U23 Vietnam aim for victory.
On August 29, U23 Vietnam gathered in Hanoi to prepare for the tournament.
MU is so bad that boxer Tyson Fury quits watching football
Legendary boxer Tyson Fury admitted he quit following MU because he could not stand the long decline at Old Trafford.
Tyson Fury is known to be a passionate fan of the "Red Devils", even visiting Old Trafford many times. However, the former WBA champion affirmed that he is now devoting all his joy to horse racing instead of football.
"I'm no longer interested in football," Goal quoted Fury as saying. "I used to be a Manchester United fan, but they're so bad now, I don't support any team anymore. I used to support England, but since the defeat to Iceland at Euro 2016, football is over for me. Now I'm more interested in horse racing."
Fury once appeared with Sir Alex Ferguson in the stands at Old Trafford in MU's classic 4-3 victory over Liverpool in the 2024 FA Cup. But all the glory has faded away. In a short time, Ten Hag was fired, Ruben Amorim took over and brought a series of disastrous results with only 28 points after 29 Premier League matches, the performance is no different from a team racing to relegation.
In the context that the "Red Devils" just had a disappointing draw with Fulham and the strikers have not scored a single goal after the opening two rounds of the Premier League, the fact that an icon like Fury turned his back further shows that trust in MU is hitting rock bottom.
Returning to Fury, the legendary boxer announced his retirement earlier this year. "The King of the Gang" has had a turbulent career. He won the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO titles after his historic victory over Wladimir Klitschko in 2015.
