Surawat tells members to review FAT's regulations

The normalisation committee members met for the first time yesterday following the appointment last week by football’s world governing body to oversee the FAT vote which has been postponed as a result of incumbent Worawi Makudi’s provisional 90-day suspension by Fifa’s ethics committee.

 After the meeting, attended by four of the six committee members, that lasted for two hours, Surawut said he had asked the other three to make a thorough review of rules concerning the FAT election before the next meeting scheduled next Monday.  

“Today’s meeting was informal because it was not attended by all the members of the committee. It’s the first time that we had a chance to discuss on how to resolve all the problems with the FAT election. 

“I asked every committee member to review the FAT statues concerning the election before we convene a meeting with all the working team again on October 26. Fifa has emphasised on the origin of 30 votes from Division Two clubs because there were many disputes about it.   

“We’ll try to make sure that everyone accepts the election we hold and we hope to make it as a blueprint for other elections in the future.

Surawut reiterated that his committee would not intervene with the running of the association.

“We’ll only oversee the election as entitled by Fifa. We’ll not meddle in the management of association because by rules the FAT secretary general will take care of the running in the wake of expiry of the executive board’s mandate.  

“So, it’s a matter for the secretary general to manage the association. We would only coordinate in regard to the election. I’m not afraid of being sued by anyone since I’m confident I do everything transparently. I also have the legal department of the Sports Authority of Thailand as my advisory body so there should not be any problem,” said Surawut.