KUALA LUMPUR, June 9 — The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) will hold internal discussions to determine the appropriate standard operating procedure (SOP) for the national team’s training to face the remaining three matches of the second qualifying round for the 2022 World Cup / 2023 Asian Cup scheduled to take place this October and November.
In a statement issued yesterday, FAM secretary-general Stuart Ramalingam said the parent body would prepare the SOP for a quarantine based approach centralised camp that would be sent to the Ministry of Youth and Sports for approval.
Stuart said FAM would also be implementing the appropriate SOP for the Under-19 side to train for the final round of the U-19 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Championship in Uzbekistan this October.
“FAM is very grateful to the government to allow the restarting of football training activities based on certain terms and SOPs, especially to (Prime Minister) Tan Sri Muhyiddin (Yassin), (Senior Minister of Security) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri and (Youth and Sports Minister) Datuk Reezal Merican (Naina Merican) for all the assistance provided to FAM,” he said.
Stuart added that the Malaysian Football League (MFL) would also be releasing an SOP for football teams in the Malaysian League to begin training in the open field with teams to be contacted for briefings over the matter soon.
Meanwhile, he said that FAM had already prepared a training SOP for football academies, especially those involved with grassroots development programmes and that it would be shared with the relevant parties after certain refinements we made in line with guidelines released by the National Security Council (MKN)
“For social and recreational football activities, FAM will issue a guideline to be followed by all involved to ensure the health and safety of all of us and prevent a recurrence of the Covid-19 pandemic,” he added.
Reezal Merican at a special media conference held in Putrajaya yesterday announced that his ministry had given the green light to the national team, state teams or clubs under the MFL, as well as registered football academies, to start non-contact training subject to certain SOPs.
— Bernama
