Lim Teong Kim has urged the Sultan of Pahang, Al-Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, to take charge of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM).

He says only a leader of the Sultan’s standing can restore credibility to an organisation mired in scandal and public anger.

The former national midfielder made the call while speaking to FMT during a visit home from Germany for the Chinese New Year. He is currently assisting amateur side Puchheim FC, a small club outside Munich.

Yet even from afar, Teong Kim says Malaysian football has reached a point where distance is no longer an option.

“This is not about titles or power,” he said. “This is about saving the game.”

A crisis that demands more than slogans

FAM is reeling from a governance breakdown that has led to the mass resignation of its executive committee and drawn scrutiny from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

The controversy surrounding the use of falsified documents in the naturalisation of seven players has damaged trust at home and abroad, leaving the association exposed and directionless.

For Teong Kim, the crisis cannot be fixed by cosmetic change or recycled leadership.

“This moment needs authority, not excuses,” he said. “You don’t fix a broken house with paint. You fix the structure.”

He believes Al-Sultan Abdullah is uniquely placed to do that.

The Sultan served as FAM president from 2014 to 2017 after succeeding his father, the late Sultan Ahmad Shah.

He also sat at the highest levels of the game as an AFC vice-president and a member of Fifa’s executive leadership.

“Al-Sultan Abdullah knows the rules of world football,” Teong Kim said. “He understands how decisions are judged internationally, not just locally. That matters now more than ever.”

Why Sultan Abdullah, and why now

Teong Kim describes the Sultan not as a symbolic figurehead, but as a working sportsman who listens, invites dissent and accepts criticism.

“He doesn’t hide when things go wrong,” he said. “He listens. He acts. And he takes responsibility.”

During his time at FAM, Al-Sultan Abdullah pushed for professional administration and opened the doors to new commercial thinking.

It was at a time when Malaysian football was struggling to keep pace with global standards.

“He understood that modern football is complex,” said Teong Kim. “You need systems, transparency and people who are accountable.

“He would use this crisis to rebuild governance, not run from it.”

For the former Bayern Munich youth coach, the solution does not require decades.

“He needs one term,” he said. “One proper term to clean up, reset the culture and leave behind a system that works.”

A legacy measured by credibility

Teong Kim frames his argument within a longer arc of Malaysian football history, one shaped by custodians who saw the game as a public trust.

Tunku Abdul Rahman viewed football as a national handshake with the world, building Merdeka Stadium and launching the Merdeka Tournament as symbols of unity and ambition.

Sultan Ahmad Shah carried that belief through turbulent decades, convinced the game could still bind the nation together even when results fell short.

Together with Al-Sultan Abdullah, they formed what Teong Kim calls the moral spine of Malaysian football, leaders who believed credibility mattered more than convenience.

“In the past, we owned our failures,” he said. “That honesty protected the game. Today, that line has been crossed.”

Teong Kim’s words carry weight because of his own journey. He remains the first Malaysian to play and coach professionally in Europe.

At Bayern Munich, he spent 12 years shaping players at under-13 and under-14 level, working with future stars such as Thomas Muller, Toni Kroos, Mats Hummels, Holger Badstuber, Emre Can and David Alaba.

Muller has publicly credited Teong Kim for laying the foundations of his career.

That pedigree later brought him home as director of Malaysia’s football development programme in 2013 and, from 2016 to 2019, as head of the Mokhtar Dahari Academy.

He has seen football systems succeed — and fail — up close.

“When history judges Malaysian football, it won’t ask who spoke the loudest. It will ask who had the courage to fix what was broken,” he said.

For Teong Kim, the answer is clear. And he believes the country should be brave enough to ask the Sultan of Pahang the same question — now.