The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) has decided to cancel the Malaysia Premier Futsal League (MPFL), along with football competitions President’s Cup and the Youth Cup, for this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
FAM secretary-general Stuart Ramalingam said the decision had to be taken as football was a contact sport and futsal, besides also being a contact sport, is played indoors, both of which were banned by the National Security Council (NSC) as part of efforts to contain the outbreak.
Stuart said with no certainty as to whether the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) will end on June 9th, the FAM had to make a decision now so as not to affect the positions of all stakeholders.
"The decision was made after the FAM had done due diligence, studies and a series of internal discussions, besides poring through the NSC guidelines and standard operating procedures (SOP) as well as advice from the Ministry of Health (MOH)," he said in a statement on Monday.
All football and futsal tournaments and activities had been postponed since March 16th due to the outbreak.
However, Stuart said the FAM and Malaysian Football League (MFL) would open up the registration for President’s Cup and Youth Cup players with potential to be absorbed into club teams to give them the opportunity to feature in this season’s Super League and Premier League.
The FAM would also raise President Cup players' age limit to 22 so that those born in 1999 would still be able to play in next year’s competition.
Meanwhile, the FAM also urged all teams to honour players’ contracts to ensure their welfare would be taken care of.
Seng Foo Lee
Tue Jun 02 2020
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