After football, Malaysia is now embroiled in a scandal involving its athletics team at the SEA Games.

(Dan Tri Newspaper) - Malaysian Minister of Youth and Sports, Hannah Yeoh, has instructed the National Sports Council (MSN) and the Malaysian Athletics Federation (MA) to clarify the withdrawal of Danish athlete Irfan Tamrin from the 33rd SEA Games.

"We cannot draw any conclusions based solely on information from social media. The investigation is ongoing."

"If any wrongdoing is detected, MSN will take appropriate action," said Hannah Yeoh at a press conference today (December 13) regarding the Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS) funding scandal surrounding the Malaysian athletics team.

Danish athlete Irfan Tamrin of the Malaysian 4x100m athletics relay team was forced by his coach to write a letter requesting to withdraw from the 33rd SEA Games (Photo: Instagram).

Accordingly, Malaysian media and fans were outraged by the incident in which Danish athlete Irfan Tamrin of the Malaysian 4x100m athletics relay team was forced by his coach to write a withdrawal letter from the 33rd SEA Games in Thailand on the grounds that he was faking an injury.

Evidence provided by the family of Danish athlete Irfan Tamrin shows that the coach sent WhatsApp messages instructing his student on how to write a letter requesting to withdraw due to "back pain," even though the athlete was actually perfectly healthy.

As a result, Danish was not included in the SEA Games squad announced by the Malaysian Athletics Federation. The relay race spot went to veteran Khairul Hafiz Jantan, who had a less impressive season performance.

Specifically, at the Southeast Asian Junior Athletics Championships, Danish achieved a time of 10.61 seconds in the 100m race, while Jantat's best time was 10.71 seconds. Looking at his most recent performance, Jantat's time in the 100m was even worse at 11.22 seconds.

"My son tried his best and achieved good results last year. But this is what he has to go through. No athlete deserves this," Danish's mother expressed.

The aforementioned scandal has angered Malaysian media and fans, sparking a wave of fierce criticism on social media, especially as the lawsuit against FIFA regarding the naturalization scandal in Malaysian football is still unresolved.

Therefore, Malaysia's Minister of Youth and Sports, Hannah Yeoh, had to reassure the public by asserting that all decisions regarding the selection of athletes must be made professionally and based on merit, taking into account factors such as time, distance, and current performance.

"I want to assure parents that the selection of athletes must be based on performance. Otherwise, Malaysia will suffer," Hannah Yeoh declared.

At the 33rd SEA Games, the Malaysian sports delegation is currently ranked 6th in the overall medal standings after 3 days of competition, with 10 gold medals, 13 silver medals, and 33 bronze medals (as of December 12th).

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/sau-bong-da-malaysia-lai-vuong-be-boi-o-doi-tuyen-dien-kinh-tai-sea-games-20251213134922436.htm