Safee steps down as PFAM president
FORMER national striker Safee Sali has resigned as president of the Professional Footballers Association of Malaysia (PFAM).
Safee said it was not an easy decision to make, but he believed the time had come for him to step aside for the younger generation to lead the association.
'I firmly believe that introducing fresh perspectives and innovative ideas is vital for the continued growth and development of football on a global scale.
'It has been an honour to serve in this capacity, and I am proud of what we have accomplished together during my tenure. My responsibility as PFAM president, which began in 2019, has come to an end today,' he said in a statement on his Instagram account today.
Safee expressed confidence that the new leaders of the association will inject fresh energy into the game and that he looks forward to seeing the positive changes they will make.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
Shuttler Ming Hong beats top seed to reach Italian Open final
Lim Ming Hong - Instagram PETALING JAYA: Shuttler Lim Ming Hong has upset the top seed to reach his first career international final in Italy. On Saturday, the 23-year-old Ming Hong from the Ampang Jaya Badminton Club defeated world No. 78 Daniil Dubovenko of Israel 21-17, 21-14 in the men's singles semi-finals of the Italian Open in Bolzano. Ranked 194th in the world, Ming Hong will face Denmark's Ditlev Jaegar Holm (world No. 95) in the title match on Sunday (June 29). Ming Hong also played in the mixed doubles with Stella Pan but they lost 15-21, 15-21 to French pair Kathell Desmots-Chacun in the semi-finals.
The Star
16 hours ago
- The Star
She lost her legs in a terrorist attack – now, she's a Paralympic equestrian
Five months after Beatrice de Lavalette lost her legs below the knee in a terrorist attack in Brussels in 2016, she was doing what seemed impossible: riding a 17 years old, de Lavalette, who began riding at three, was at the Brussels airport when explosives in a suitcase she was standing beside were detonated, part of attacks in the city that killed dozens of people. She awoke in the hospital with the big goal to ride again. Today, de Lavalette is a decorated athlete in the discipline of para-dressage, a balletic performance on horseback in which she rode for the United States in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games, the highest level of sport for disabled riders. She trains in Denmark on her Oldenburg gelding, Sixth Sense, known as Sensei, with her eye on the 2028 games in Los Angeles. de Lavalette inspires many with her strength, resilience, and passion for riding. Photo: Instagram/ Beatriceldl A rider since she first toddled around on a Shetland pony in her hometown near Versailles, France, de Lavalette is in the position of experiencing riding both without a disability and as a para-athlete - and of training her horses to adapt. Dressage horses receive their commands to perform by invisible pressure from the rider's leg and heel. As well as her double amputations, de Lavalette sustained a spinal cord injury and has no use of her body below her waist. She explains what went into retraining her horse, body and mind to ride. "My way of riding is all upper body, weight, control and voice. Horses are incredibly sensitive. They feel absolutely everything. I mean, they will literally feel a fly on their back. So, depending on the horse, they react very well to those very slight movements, and those slight movements can be the difference between the horse understanding, "Go sideways," "Go forward," "Slow down." "I've been riding since I was three, kind of non-stop, and I've done various disciplines within the sport. And all of those combined gave me muscle memory - basically, even though I can't use my legs and have no use of anything below the waist, like I can't feel them or anything, my body remembers what to do even if I can't physically do it. I do lose my balance, but I'm able to control that in a way that should not medically be possible." When asked how she mounts up, as a partly paralysed rider, she says: "That's a tricky one. I've had multiple ways over the years, but the one I've used the longest is just someone picks me up like a princess from my wheelchair and places me in the saddle. But I am physically dead weight in a way, so that's all of that without any help from me physically. So it's a whole thing. But over the years, I've had different machines, mechanisms. Is that like a mechanised lift? "Yes. And I finally started using it a couple years ago, and it really changed my life because I don't like having to rely on people. It's just like in general, I'm very independent, so having to rely on the people - and I know I'm not the lightest person out there - so I have that aspect of like, I don't want to hurt them or I don't want them to put out their back, or stuff like that. So I'm always a little self-conscious when it comes to that. So when I had the machine, I didn't have that problem." Asked how she teaches a horse to tolerate it - especially since new experiences can be frightening - she explains: "It depends on the horse. I've had horses that pick it up instantly, they don't really care about it. "Others, Sensei in particular, is a little bit more of a drama queen when it comes to that stuff. He does not care about anything else, but if it's a lift and it's new, he's like, I don't like it. Once we had it and he understood it, he was like, OK, I'll just stand here." She explains how she handles falling off a horse. "The first discipline that I did in the horse world was called horseball. It's the most fun sport and you have to be completely nuts to play it. The first thing they did - literally in the first five minutes of getting on ponies - was they taught us how to fall without hurting ourselves. And that's come in handy many, many times. So naturally my body remembers what to do, so the brain says, "Oh, OK, we're falling, turn, keep your head up." It's helped me even when I fall in the shower, or when I fall in the wheelchair." When asked what she wishes more people knew about her sport, she says: "There is a misconception that the horse does everything, and we just sit there and do nothing. That's a misconception for the able-bodied as well. "But it has even more meaning for para riders because it's not easy. We don't just sit there. We have to put in a lot more effort to make our dreams come true." – ©2025 The New York Times Company
The Star
a day ago
- The Star
Soccer-Spain's Bonmati hospitalised with viral meningitis days before Euro 2025
Soccer Football - Women's Nations League - League A - Portugal v Spain - Estadio Capital do Movel, Pacos de Ferreira, Portugal - April 4, 2025 Spain's Aitana Bonmati during the warm up before the match REUTERS/Miguel Vidal (Reuters) -Midfielder Aitana Bonmati, Ballon d'Or winner for the last two years, has been hospitalised with viral meningitis less than a week before Spain begin their Women's Euro 2025 campaign, coach Montse Tome said. The 27-year-old missed Friday's 3-1 win over Japan in a friendly as Spain continued building up to their first Group B match against Portugal on July 3. Bonmati shared a picture of herself watching the match from a hospital bed in an Instagram story. "The doctors say that it is controlled. Talking about meningitis can be scary but it is controlled," Tome told reporters after the win in Leganes. "Aitana will be admitted and there are no deadlines yet to know for how long (she will be absent).' Barcelona's Bonmati, who also won the FIFA Women's Player of the Year award for 2023 and 2024, has scored 30 goals for Spain in 78 appearances, playing a key role as they won the Women's World Cup in 2023 and the Women's Nations League last year. "Aitana, for us, is a very important player. We'll wait for her as long as we can," Tome added. Spain, who also have Belgium and Italy in their group, have never made it to the final of the continental championship, reaching the semi-finals only once in 1997. (Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in Bengaluru; Editing by Sam Holmes)
