KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 16 — Three teams, namely Melaka, Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) and Kelantan, will have three points deducted ahead of the Malaysian League (M-League) season, if they fail to settle the salary arrears of their respective players and officials by January 31.
Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) secretary-general Stuart Ramalingam in a statement said additional six points would be deducted if any of the three teams fail to pay the outstanding debts by the second deadline on February 28.
He stressed that the three teams would be disqualified from competing in the M-League should they continue to fail to settle the salary arrears by the third deadline, which is March 30.
“Please note that even if any of the teams have reached an agreement on settlement of arrears with the players or officials involved, before the first deadline in January 31, they would still be subject to the three-point deduction at any time, if they are found to have violated or not paid the players or officials according to the agreed dates,” he said.
As such Stuart hoped that the three teams would take the matter seriously and to settle the arrears by the first deadline on January 31 if they do not want to lose any points.
PDRM and Melaka are competing in the Super League, while Kelantan is in the Premier League in the coming season.
Yesterday, Stuart confirmed that the FAM Club Licensing First Instance Body had issued a final warning to the three teams to settle their debts to players and staff or face the three-point deduction ahead of the new M-League season.
The Malaysia Football League via their board of directors had in February last year cancelled Perlis participation in the M-League 2019 competition after finding that the source of income of Perlis FA was insufficient to manage the team for competition in the M-League.
— Bernama
