I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I read the report that the Sultan of Pahang wants another term as Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) president. He said this would enable him to take Malaysian football to new heights.

Frankly, this is not new. We've heard this statement from the FAM president many times before. The more he says it, the more he sounds like politicians everywhere. They promise to build a bridge even when there is no river.

A quick look at the history of FAM will tell us that Malaysian football went into the doldrums almost immediately after the sultan took over as president in 1984. Before that, the Malaysian football team was among the most feared in Asia.

We even qualified twice for the Olympics, in Munich (1972) and Moscow (1980). Today, the mere mention of Malaysia on the pitch will draw a chuckle not only from the top Asian teams but also from other smaller teams in Southeast Asia. We're only a minnow now.

The question is, after 20 years at the helm of FAM, what has been done by the president to bring back Malaysian football to its heyday of yesteryears? The introduction of various formats for competitions did not bring any impact to our football standards. Now, FAM is launching the Super League which the president believes can help strengthen Malaysian football. But can it? Nobody really knows.

There seems to be no direction as to where Malaysian football should go. Things keep on changing.

Now suddenly, FAM thinks that they should focus on development programmes in school (which they should have concentrated on in the first place) in order to achieve results. I just hope they'll stick to this programme and not to just abandon it halfway.

Personally, I think the sultan should make way for younger blood. He has been the president for a bit too long. It seems to me that he doesn't care in which direction the car is travelling, so long as he remains in the driver's seat - and that's not good for the future of Malaysian football.