KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysia Football League (MFL) will amend the schedule of this season’s Super League’s seventh to 10th matches to allow the Harimau Malaya and Under-23 (U-23) squads to prepare for their upcoming international championships.
MFL chief executive officer Stuart Ramalingam(pix) said the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and MFL would make adjustments to amend the schedule of six Super League matches to allow the U-23 national team to participate in centralised training and the 2022 South East Asian (SEA) Games in Hanoi, Vietnam, a period lasting from April 30 to May 23.
“Referring to previous MFL and FAM discussions, the national senior team and the U-23 squad will undergo centralised training to face international tournaments, with the national team to train from May 19 to 29.
“Meanwhile, the U-23 squad will undergo centralised training for the 2022 SEA Games in Hanoi from April 30 to May 11 and the Uzbekistan U-23 AFC Cup tournament from May 24 to 31,“ he said in a statement today.
Stuart also said that the entire match schedule for the 10th week will also be amended after Malaysia was given the opportunity to host the 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium here from June 8 to 14.
As there will be no quarantine period of the national team in the transition to endemic phase, he said MFL could provide additional days for centralised training before the competition began.
“The amendment to the Super League schedule is important because it is related to the national agenda and I also express my appreciation to every club that has cooperated and agreed to honour this amendment by placing national interest as the top priority.
“The MFL would also like to state that the next amendment in the schedule may have to be done should any Malaysia League club, Johor Darul Ta'zim (JDT), Kedah Darul Aman FC and Kuala Lumpur City FC, qualify to the next stage (knockout round) of their respective Asian Football Confederation (AFC) championships,” he added.
Meanwhile, Stuart also shared that the second round FA Cup matches of the affected teams will be amended before it is announced next week.
The Harimau Malaya squad will face Turkmenistan on June 8, followed by Bahrain (June 11) and Bangladesh (June 14) in Group E qualifiers in a bid to qualify for the 2023 Asian Cup in China.
The national U-23 team drawn in Group B at the 2022 Hanoi SEA Games will face Thailand on May 7, before meeting Laos (May 11), Singapore (May 14) and Cambodia (May 16).-Bernama