Now that Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim has made it loud and clear that he has no interest in leading FAM, the guessing game starts with regards to who can take over the hot seat of FAM.
This list is not exhaustive and it does not reflect any candidate and honestly only a complete overhaul will help Football, for merely changing the leader.
And one has to look at the FAM constitution which clearly spells out that a candidate must be within the system, meaning he must be a principal office bearer in the state affiliate.
That ruling alone will disqualify many of these candidates but then again this article is written to throw names into the hat, as they are mostly corporate personalities that have done well.
Let's start from within FAM and the first name that comes to mind is Dato Seri Norza Zakaria, the current Treasurer of FAM. He is also the Deputy President of OCM, BAM as well as Chairman of the National Sports Institute.
Next we haveTan Sri Anuar Musa who is the President of Kelantan FA and was once the Deputy President at FAM and was suspended as well.
The third and fourth candidates both have managed Football clubs experience - Tan Sri Tony Fernandes and Tan Sri Vincent Tan, who own QPR and Cardiff respectively.
Tony runs Air Asia while Tan is the man behind Berjaya.
The fifth, sixth and seventh candidates come from the corporate world, heading some of the most successful corporate bodies in the country.
They are Tengku Dato Sri Zafrul Aziz the CEO of CIMB, an ardent Liverpool fan, Naza Group of Companies Joint Group Executive Chairman and Group Chief Executive Officer, SM Nasaruddin SM Nasimuddin and Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad Group Managing Director Tan Sri Salim Fateh Din .
Of the three, Salim has the most involvement in Football as his former company Gapura supported Selangor and he was also the Treasurer of KLFA at one time.
Then of course we have the Sports Minister himself Khairy Jamaluddin who was once FAM Deputy President and he could seek an exemption from Prime Minister on the rule that Ministers cannot hold positions in sports bodies.
There you have it, personalities that can help reshape Football in Malaysia provided they are given a free hand and not be bound by granting favours to whoever puts them there.
These personalities have one thing in common - they are all passionate about their daily work and that is what Football needs to re-invent itself.
