His explanation comes in the wake of a list detailing 101 projects said to have been awarded via direct negotiation by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government.

According to the list released by his successor Tengku Zafrul Aziz the project was worth RM29.9 million.

“The finance minister has made it a direct negotiation issue even though the PH government did not need to pay a single sen. In fact, we made a net profit of RM3.3 million.

“Don’t tell me this is Lim Guan Eng’s fault too,” he said in a Facebook post.

Lim also shared links to news articles to back up his argument. According to a Malaysiakini article, Maxis Bhd and AirAsia Bhd were the main sponsors of the live telecast of matches from the tournament which was held in Russia.

Former youth and sports minister Khairy Jamaluddin had earlier today questioned the RM29.9 million project cost and what had happened to the funds.

“Maybe the cash was used to pay for the rights for the live telecast through the communication and multimedia ministry. And that is why it was listed as a government procurement,” he tweeted.