KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 — There are still two more teams that have not completed the international transfer certificate of imported players before the first player transfer window of the Malaysia League (M-League) 2023 closes tomorrow.

Without disclosing the teams involved, Malaysian Football League (MFL) chief executive officer Stuart Ramalingam said the two teams are still in the final evaluation phase before signing the necessary import players.

"The teams involved may not want to take early risks with the transfer of foreign players.

"I think that’s a good step to ensure that the monitoring and selection of foreign players is carried out more carefully,” he told reporters at the ceremony to announce MFL’s agreement with AEON BiG (M) Sdn Bhd as the exclusive sponsor of the ‘hypermarket’ for the 2023 season, here, today.

In the meantime, he said that not all teams completed the quota of nine imported players allowed by MFL for this new season.

Accordingly, he saw the action taken by the team that did not fully use the quota set for imported players as a good indication, especially of the team’s spending this season.

"I see that all teams have shown good budgeting or operations to ensure the use of imported players according to the needs of their own teams,” he said.

Stuart also hopes that all the planning done by MFL and the broadcasters ahead of the 2023 Super League competition proceeds smoothly as it opens this Friday, with the Sumbangsih Cup match between Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) and Terengganu FC at Sultan Ibrahim Stadium, Iskandar Puteri.

Meanwhile, he was proud that a leading supermarket company shared the same mission to further expand a two-way promotion network between AEON BiG and the local football league.

In the meantime, without revealing the value of the collaboration with MFL, AEON BiG managing director Sheikh Farouk Sheikh Mohamed hopes that the sponsorship agreement with the M-League governing body for the season will extend beyond the 2023 season.

"Through this sponsorship, we want to be closer to our customers through football, because nothing can bring people together better than sports,” he said.

MFL president Datuk Ab Ghani Hassan, on the other hand, said the presence of AEON BiG is a good signal for the M-League which is making strides this season with several reforms to ensure that the quality can be improved in terms of competition and commercial value. — Bernama