KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 — There is a chance that professional football activities including the Malaysian League (M-League) would return earlier than expected, said Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) secretary-general Stuart Ramalingam.
FAM is currently preparing two paperwork involving a quarantine-based training approach for the national teams as well as training sessions for M-League clubs for submission to the National Security Council (NSC) next week.
With the recent improved development of Covid-19 in the country, Stuart did not rule out the possibility that clubs could return to training as early as July before the league resumes in August if the active number of Covid-19 cases continue to decline in the near future.
“Yes (resume early), if you look at the number of cases, there is a chance but we are not holding our breath, we will play our part to be patient. But we hope things will start to open up when the number starts to drop and then we will definitely see a return to football soon.
“However our plans are for the league sides to train in August and play in September. So that’s the latest deadline but hopefully, anything sooner is better for everybody,” he told Bernama, today.
FAM and MFL have suspended all their football activities since March 16 following the Covid-19 pandemic as well as in compliance with the MCO.
In the Special Ministerial Meeting on the Implementation of the movement control order (MCO) last month, the application of the Malaysian Football League (MFL) to resume competition in August and team training sessions in July was not approved.
Several countries, among them, South Korea, Italy and Germany which have a higher number of Covid-19 infection compared to Malaysia, have already started relaxing rules regarding their professional football leagues.
“We are getting there, in the matter of timeline we are getting to that point, let’s not compare one country to another but let’s also understand that we all play our part in keeping the numbers low and we do need to understand that we are getting to the point of release,” Stuard added.
South Korea’s K-League was the first competition to be back in action followed by Vietnam’s V-League and the Bundesliga last month while Spain’s La Liga is set to continue again on June 11 while the English Premier League and Italy’s Serie A will recommence on June 17 and June 20.
— Bernama
