KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 4 — A survey by world-governing football body International Federation of Association Football (Fifa) has found that footballers in Malaysia do not play enough competitive matches at the domestic level, said Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) secretary-general Mohd Saifuddin Abu Bakar.
To overcome that, he said Fifa had recommended that the Malaysia League (M-League), involving the Super League and Premier League, be extended to provide more matches for the players.
He added that Fifa also recommended that the league be run over three rounds, with teams playing against one another three times compared to twice under the current format.
“The current format will be retained, it’s just that they will all play another round. For example, let’s say Kelantan have played twice against Selangor, the two teams will meet one more time and we will decide who will be the host (for the third clash).
“But we must also see if the proposal can be carried out in our (football) calendar because ours is slightly different to other countries. We must also provide space for the national team to prepare (for international assignments),” he said when contacted by Bernama today.
Mohd Saifuddin said the result of the survey conducted by Fifa on the Malaysian football ecosystem was shared with FAM via a virtual meeting between the two entities two weeks ago.
He added that the meeting was attended by the heads of units under the FAM Technical and Development Department, among them being FAM Youth Unit chief Mohamed Razip Ismail and Coaching Education Unit chief Lim Kim Chon.
“So, they will analyse and discuss the matter at the FAM Technical and Development Committee meeting. We will look at all the proposals to see if they can be implemented. We do not necessarily have to implement all of them, we will also have to see our situation,” he said.
The Super League and Premier League currently feature 12 teams each and each team play a total of 22 matches per season, although some end up playing more matches should they qualify for the Malaysia Cup.
In comparison, each team in some of the best leagues in the world, namely the English Premier League (EPL), La Liga (Spain) and Serie A (Italy) play 38 matches per season while teams in the Bundesliga (Germany) play 36 matches.
At the Southeast Asia level, teams in the Indonesian league play 34 matches overall while the leagues in Thailand and Vietnam comprise 30 and 26 matches respectively.
Meanwhile, Mohd Saifuddin said that at the meeting, Fifa also recognised FAM’s 2019-2030 Roadmap (F:30), thus refuting allegations by certain quarters that the F:30 was a failed plan.
However, he admitted that the F:30, which is a guide to raising the standard of Malaysian football, could still be improved so as to achieve the stipulated targets.
“We have planned the F:30 since 2019 and, as you are all aware, definitely the progress is very slow. Why is the progress very slow? (It’s) because of the MCO (Movement Control Order) and Covid-19 and we are striving to return to the targets that we have set for 2022,” he said.
— Bernama
