BY ZULHILMI ZAINAL Follow on Twitter
Kelantan FA (KAFA) president Bibi Ramjani Ilias Khan has announced her decision to step down from her post on Tuesday.
In a brief post on her personal Facebook account, she wrote: "I, Bibi Ramjani Ilias Khan announce my resignation. May KAFA find success under the new management, I say thank you to all the fans for always supporting Kelantan. I apologise for any mistakes made during my leadership."
Curiously, the announcement was made around one hour after an earlier post, in which she revealed that the Kelantan vs JDT II Premier League match, initially scheduled to take place at 9.00 pm on the same day, has to be rescheduled to late afternoon instead at the last minute, as she had just been informed by the Sultan Muhammad IV Stadium management that the stadium lighting has malfunctioned.
The 'batik' textile businesswoman had been voted as association president in September 2017, making Kelantan one of the very few Malaysian clubs to be led by a female chief. But under her tenure, the former Malaysian cup and league winners struggled to stay competitive, due to numerous off-the-field issues.
The Red Warriors were relegated from the Super League at the conclusion of the 2018 season, and are currently flirting with relegation in the second tier.
The East Coast side frequently failed to pay their players on time, resulting in sudden player departures on numerous occassions.
In 2018, Syrian head coach Fajr Ibrahim attempted to resign from his post just months into his appointment, but was initially persuaded from leaving by the board. However, days after revealing in a later post-match press conference that his charges did not have a proper pitch to train on, Fajr eventually departed Kota Bharu surreptitiously, leaving only a hand-scrawled resignation letter.
In April this year, they were slapped with a three-point points deduction by FIFA, for their failure to pay the wage owed to former technical director and head coach Alfredo Carlos Gonzalez.
Most recently, Bibi has been accused by former team captain Badhri Radzi of refusing to release his transfer certificate which would allow him to join another club, unless the player drops his unpaid wage claim against the Red Warriors.
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