JOHOR BARU (20 Sept 2017) – Expect some major changes to the M-League – starting with five foreign players from next year to add more appeal to the Super League and the second-tier Premier League the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) President Major General Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim has announced.
The five foreign players must include one from the ASEAN region. However, the player from the ASEAN countries must have more than 30 international caps – in line with FAM’s stand to bring “quality” and make the M-League attractive in every sense.
At present each team is allowed to sign only four foreign players with a quota reserved for one player from Asia.
Although the teams will be allowed to sign five foreign players from next season Major General Tunku Ismail made it clear that it is up to the teams if they want to follow the new ruling on foreign players.
This is understandable as some of the teams do not have the financial resources or have run into financial constrains due to poor management. These teams owe their players salaries – with some players having not being paid for more than six months.
Major General Tunku Ismail, who is also the Crown Prince of Johor owns JDT (Johor Darul Takzim) who have won the Super League title for the fourth successive year this season which is new record in the M-League.
Massive celebrations have been lined for JDT when the Southern Tigers play Kelantan in their final home match in the league this season at the Larkin Stadium tonight (Sept 20).
JDT will be presented the newly crafted Malaysian Super League Trophy made from copper, silver and 24-carat gold and stands at 633mm high and weighs 20kg. The Southern Tigers will be the proud first winners of the majestic trophy.
Major General Tunku Ismail added that other trophies like the FA Cup, Charity Shield and the Premier League will also be upgraded into new silverware.
