PETALING JAYA, April 20 — The Malaysian Football League (MFL) are likely to change the Malaysia League (M-League) schedule to enable players to report for national training before May 1 in preparation for the next month’s Hanoi SEA Games.
MFL chief executive officer Stuart Ramalingam admitted that they had indeed held discussions with the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) in implementing changes to the M-League schedule.
However, Stuart did not rule out the possibility that the MFL, as the governing body of the M-League, would prioritise rescheduling matches involving teams with many players called up to join Brad Maloney’s National Under-23 squad training camp.
“There is indeed a discussion between MFL and FAM on the league calendar to give space for calling up players for the SEA Games.
“However, this requires the cooperation of not only MFL and FAM but also the clubs involved. I am working hard with the secretariat to manage the best for FAM and, in a day or two, I will make an announcement on the (M-League) calendar,” he said.
He said this when met by reporters at the ALIF brand cooking oil sponsorship announcement ceremony as an M-League sponsor, which was also attended by Sime Darby Oils (SDO) managing director Mohd Haris Mohd Arshad here today.
Yesterday, only five of the 31 players called up for centralised training turned up, namely Sikh Izhan Nazrel Sikh Azman, Muhammad Fahmi Daniel Mohd Zaaim, Muhammad Faiz Amer Runnizar, Muhammad Shafi Azswad Sapari and Muhammad Haqimi Azim Rosli.
Malaysia, drawn in Group B at the biennial Games, will face Thailand on May 7, before meeting Laos (May 11), Singapore (May 14) and Cambodia (May 16) at the Thien Truong Stadium in Nam Dinh. Only the top two teams from each group will qualify for the semi-finals.
The last time Malaysia won the “mother of all medals” at the SEA Games was in the 2011 edition in Indonesia, under the guidance of Datuk Ong Kim Swee.
Meanwhile, Stuart said the collaboration between ALIF and MFL marked another new entry of leading local brands that value and support the local football industry as a platform that can increase brand awareness among football fans.
Mohd Haris said the cooking oil brand’s support for the country’s biggest sport was justified so that the benefits of ALIF, the first sustainably produced cooking oil in Malaysia, could be shared with more consumers.
In conjunction with the collaboration, SDO is planning exciting lifestyle-style programmes at stadiums as well as selected shopping malls in collaboration with business partners across the country. — Bernama
