The Johor prince said in an interview with Timesport that he would be watching everyone within his ambit closely, placing his own people in key positions, with the hope of achieving everything in two or three years.
“The first thing I want to do is to tell everybody that they have to follow my momentum and pace because I like to do things very fast,” he said in the interview published in The New Sunday Times yesterday.
“I’m very determined and I’m a young man and I like to get things done.”
Popularly known as TMJ (Tunku Mahkota Johor), he said he would be watching those holding positions very closely.
“But I’m not worried about that because I will put mostly my people in place everywhere whether it is the disciplinary committee, treasurer and integrity committee,” he said.
He stressed that his priority was trying to meet the expectation of fans.
“They want us to be in the World Cup as soon as possible and win the World Cup. So we will work on that,” he said.
Stressing that the national football has been in the slump for the last thirty years, he said the FAM has to be realistic about targets.
“Now there is the Asian Cup qualifiers and they (fans) say at least get us to the Asian Cup. I just came in. I don’t think I can. I’m going to be honest but I will do my best.”
Tunku Ismail was confirmed as president after Umno information chief Annuar Musa withdrew his candidacy in the election for the post at the FAM’s 53rd Congress last Saturday.
He outlined in the interview that his immediate measures would be to check FAM’s budget and fix the national team in terms of appointment of coaches, selection of players, training methods, ideology and playing philosophy.
“Thirdly, I want to improve quality of referees in the country and we have to not only implement certain methods like getting advance technology but also to get a professional system from abroad to educate our referees and raise the level of refereeing,” he said in the interview.
“Fourthly is to reduce FAM staff because I only want those who can contribute to the organisation and, as my responsibility is to safeguard the finance of FAM.”
Tunku Ismail also said Argentine Mario Gomez, whom he named as national coach on Saturday, would start work this week. “Gomez will have his assistants and I will allow him the freedom to choose but I will monitor his performance,” he said.
“If there is an improvement in the level of play, he can stay. If not up to the mark, then we have to change.”
Gomez replaces Ong Kim Swee who will now take charge of the national Under-23 team,
German Frank Bernhardt will be removed as the under-23 team coach upon return from the Dubai Cup Under-23 tournament which ends on March 28.
Tunku Ismail also cautioned clubs that fail to pay their players on time “They have to be serious and they know that if they delay payment then they shouldn’t be there,” he said in the interview.
“When a team can’t pay salaries it is clearly a sign of mismanagement of funds,” he added.
He added that he wants the government’s budget for the National Football Development Programme (NFDP) to be given to FAM as well as each affiliate and club participating so that they can run their own youth development programmes with the assistance of the NFDP coaches.
He pointed to Thailand’s achievement in improving its football status.
“Money was channelled in the right way in terms of broadcasting rights to the teams,” he said.
“They also have an educational programme for people running football clubs and give priority to youth development which is not done here.”
“Here the priority is to buy foreign players because they only have short-term plans to play in the league.”