Malaysia Coach Tan Cheng Hoe Resigns After Failing In The 2020 AFF Cup

Tan Cheng Hoe (Twitter @FAM_Malaysia)

JAKARTA - Malaysia's failure to penetrate the 2020 AFF Cup semifinals has an impact on the continuation of his coaching career. Tan Cheng Hoe decided to resign from his post.

The news of Cheng Hoe's resignation from the Malaysian national team coaching chair was conveyed directly by the Malaysian Football Association (FAM) through its official website, Monday, January 3.

In that statement, FAM had a discussion with the coach. But they finally decided to respect Cheng Hoe's decision to leave the coaching chair after failing in the 2020 AFF Cup.

"(Tan) Cheng Hoe has communicated with the management of FAM and expressed his desire after the failure of his squad to advance to the semifinals of the 2020 AFF Cup in Singapore, recently," FAM wrote on its official website.

"After open discussion from all aspects, the FAM management finally respects the decision and has agreed to release Tan Cheng Hoe following the agreement of both parties," continued the written statement.

Furthermore, FAM did not forget to thank the 53-year-old coach for all his services. Moreover, the coach from Kedah has been devoted to FAM in Malaysia U-20, U-23, to seniors, since 2005 or for 14 years.

Cheng Hoe himself officially joined the Malaysian national team on December 17, 2017. During his time in charge of Harimau Malaya, Cheng Hoe managed to help the team win the 2009 SEA Games gold medal and win the 2010 AFF Cup, but at that time he was still serving as assistant coach to Datuk K. Rajagobal.

Malaysia itself failed to advance to the semifinals of the AFF Cup 2020 after losing to Indonesia and Vietnam in Group B. The climax was when Malysia lost 1-4 to Indonesia in the final match of the group phase.

After Cheng Hoe announced the news of his resignation, a number of names immediately emerged and were predicted as replacements. Call it Bojan Hodak, Hassan Sazali, and former Singapore coach Tatsuma Yoshida.