Johor Crown Prince congratulates LionsXII on FA Cup win

SINGAPORE - The Johor Crown Prince, Tunku Ismail Ibni Sultan Ibrahim, has congratulated LionsXII on their victory in the Malaysian FA Cup.

In the final at Bukit Jalil Stadium on Saturday, May 23, two goals from substitute Sahil Suhaimi, coming after Faris Ramli's opener, gave the Singapore outfit a 3-1 win over Kelantan.

"Congratulations Lions XII. Not only for qualifying to the FA Cup final, but the Singaporean side were also perceived as taking on the best team in Malaysia, Kelantan, who were the final Malaysian team in the tournament," he wrote in a Facebook post on the JOHOR Southern Tigers page.

The prince, who is also president of the Johor Football Association, also criticised the state of Malaysian football and its governing body, the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM).

In the post, which was titled "BIG SLAP ON FAM's FACE", he wrote that LionsXII had "not only played against the best Malaysian football team, with the support of four foreign players, but also against the referee and the system, which is the FAM".

He commented that the match had made it blatantly obvious that the standard of football in Malaysia was still lacking.

"LionsXII's victory tonight is similar to a Scotland under-23 team defeating Manchester United, or any other big English clubs."

Since it was posted on Saturday night, the post has garnered over 18,000 likes and over 1,000 shares.

seanyap@sph.com.sg